


For the Most Part

by Plothole181



Series: For The Most Part [2]
Category: Pretty Little Liars
Genre: AU Post Season 2, F/F, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2015-09-17
Packaged: 2018-04-21 03:57:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4814081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Plothole181/pseuds/Plothole181
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the wake of the events of the Masquerade Ball, Emily and Hanna clutch onto each other and try to come to grips with the pasts that they are now mourning. What happens when things begin to fall apart again?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I Think We're Alone Now

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Pretty Little Liars. I'm not making money off of writing this.  
> AN: This is in the same world and could be considered a direct sequel to Plants Are the Fat Ones. I was planning on using that as the first chapter of this, but I realized that the other story worked better as a stand alone. However, I am taking Plants Are the Fat Ones as canon for this story.  
> Also apparently I missed a few typos in the previous story first time around. I may have fixed them by now.  
> People who have read some of my stuff before may notice that I definitely have favorite characters on the shows I like, but I hope that, though I focus on those characters, I also bring in the other characters at least somewhat.  
> On with the show.  
> Enjoy.

Emily couldn't sleep in her family's house. Logistically it was an option again; the tenants had moved out after the body had been found and the cops had cleared out of the yard weeks ago, but she couldn't stop seeing Maya's corpse in every room. Before, she couldn't stop seeing Ali sleeping in her bedroom, eating at her table, sitting on her porch and now Maya had joined her. The two girls she had been in love with. The two girls who had broken her heart. Broken it before they left, broken it by leaving, broken it by dying.

She hadn't even had to tell Hanna that she needed a place to stay. Hanna just knew and Mrs. Marin had been more than happy to have her stay as often as she wanted. Hanna had joked that her mom just wanted to hang onto the good daughter, but she was smiling when she said it. The only genuine smile that she had seen on Hanna since the Masquerade Ball. Part of Emily suspected that Hanna just didn't want to be alone right now. Why should she. Emily seemed to be the only one who hadn't forgotten that Hanna had lost someone too.

~~~

The first night that Emily had been allowed back into her childhood home she had carried her last bag of things over her back as she walked down the stairs from their...Hanna's room. She had thanked Mrs. Marin for her hospitality all of these weeks and then she had gotten in her mother's car and sat quietly for the entire ride back to her house as her mom talked about how nice it would be to be living with family again. Emily held back a comment about how her dad still wouldn't be there – her mother really was trying – and just watched the road go by, making meaningless responses whenever she could tell they were expected.

At dinner she heard Maya telling the story of how her father had proposed to her mother. She felt herself rubbing the base of her ring finger and picturing a tattoo carved into her skin. Imagined that whether she liked it or not both Maya and Ali were carved into her now. They were gone, but she would never be able to escape from them.

She only made it half way up the stairs to her room before the mixed giggles of Maya and Ali drove her back down the stairs to the front door. Her mother worriedly called out to her as her hand closed around the doorknob, but Emily didn't really hear her as she pulled the door open and rushed out into the cold night.

Emily didn't even pay attention to where she was going. She followed her feet. She remembered that line from a movie. She wanted to go back. Back to when she hadn't lost anyone. She wanted to go to where she felt safe. She wanted to go home. So she followed her feet.

Hanna was already waiting for her on the front porch when she got to the Marins' house. Her mind flashed back to a time not so long ago when they had sat together on her own porch, both feeling lost and alone. Their silent promise to be alone together.

“Come on inside, Em,” Hanna said, “Your mom called. I told her you were coming.”

Hanna wrapped her arms protectively around Emily's waist and led her through the door. Mrs. Marin looked up from her seat in the kitchen and when she saw the girls coming in through the door she nodded and picked up the phone, but Hanna barely spared her a glance before continuing to pull her upstairs to their room.

Hanna gently lay Emily down in her bed and began removing her boots and her coat. She pulled the blanket gently over her and then climbed into the bed with her. Holding her as she cried.

~~~

When Emily woke up the next morning and tentatively made her way downstairs she was worried that there would be questions or dictations or something, but when she walked into the kitchen it was to find Hanna and Mrs. Marin sitting and eating quietly and a bag that she quickly recognized as one of hers sitting at the foot of the table.

“Your mom stopped by,” Hanna said simply, “Dropped off some stuff you left at her house.”

Nothing else was said on the matter.

~~~

As the months went by they fell into a pattern; Emily wouldn't leave, Hanna would stay with her, Emily's mom would come by for dinner every other day, and then would go home afterward having not once mentioned Emily coming with her. Emily suspected that her mom was still giving Mrs. Marin money in compensation for her staying with her, just like when she hadn't moved to Texas, but she wouldn't have known for sure even if they had told her.

Really the most important part of the pattern was that Hanna was always right there with her. Because Emily was the only one who still remembered that Hanna had lost someone too. Because they had promised each other to be alone together. Sure people came to visit.

Lucas and Caleb usually showed up, joined at the hip, to talk Hanna into going somewhere fun with them and Hanna would smile and turn to invite Emily, silently begging Emily to give her a reason not to go which Emily would give. Caleb eventually learned to involve Emily in their plans automatically, but it didn't make that much of a difference.

Paige showed up once. When the door opened and Hanna saw her she scowled, but when Emily nudged her she invited the other swimmer in. Hanna didn't say anything the entire time that Paige was in the house, but she 'absentmindedly' moved everything sharp, heavy, or wet away from their guest for the full forty five minutes. When Paige left and Emily turned to her with a questioning gaze Hanna had shrugged and said “Didn't she try to drown you once?”

~~~

Tonight was different.

At lunch Hanna had received a phone call and, after cheerfully answering, her face fell and she responded to whoever she was talking to in only monosyllabic grunts of ascent or denial. Finally, hanging up the phone, she walked out of the house alone.

For hours she didn't come back. Mrs. Marin was surprised when she came home and found Emily alone in the kitchen. When Emily's mom arrived for dinner she turned to an empty space in the room during her greetings expecting to have one more person to say good evening to.

It wasn't until Emily was leading her mother to the door that Hanna came back through it. She waved distractedly at the two of them, but continued up stairs without supplying any sort of explanation. Emily smiled softly at her mom before turning away from her and following Hanna upstairs.

She paused outside of their room, the door left partially open, she watched Hanna walk to the middle of the room and then she watched as Hanna's legs gave out from under her. Emily rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Hanna's shoulders – half holding her up and half hugging her – and started whispering comforting sounds in her ear. She had no idea what had gone wrong, but this was Hanna crying. Hanna crying had to be rectified.

“She hit me with a car,” Hanna finally forced out in three wracking sobs of speech.

Emily immediately pushed away from Hanna so that she could check over her body to see if she was hurt. She pushed her face from side to side and was just about to push her shirt up to check for bruising when Hanna pushed her hand away, shaking her head.

“No, Emily, stop,” she said.

Emily froze. Her eyes not leaving Hanna as Hanna's eyes trailed all around the bedroom.

“Hanna, what happened?” Emily could barely hear her own voice as she asked the question.

“I got a call,” Hanna said, “From the doctors. They were asking if I would go see her. I went up there.”

“Oh, Hanna,” Emily cooed and pulled Hanna in close again.

“She was my best friend,” Hanna said, “She was my best friend and she ran me over with a car.”

“None of us saw - ,” Emily began.

“And I still care about her,” Hanna burst out, “After everything...she's still Mona.”

In the silence Emily felt Hanna's body tense, waiting for her reaction. Afraid that Emily would reject her for her feelings, but Emily just pulled her closer. When the tension left Hanna's shoulders and she sagged into Emily, she began rubbing circles in Hanna's back.

“It's okay, Hanna,” she whispered, “I know.”

~~~

Emily woke up to the sound of the doorbell. The clock read 11:00am, Mrs. Marin would be at work by now. The doorbell rung again. Emily looked down to see Hanna looking up at her with wide eyes and with shake of her head she told Emily that she wasn't ready to see anyone.

Emily walked to the window and peered carefully out. She sighed when she saw the two stood on the doorstep. They would be difficult to get rid of.

“Caleb and Lucas?” she said softly with a little sigh.

Hanna just shook her head again and pulled the covers over her head. Emily sighed and walked out of the room and to the front door. When she opened the door Caleb was almost immediately on his way through the door, but Emily blocked his way with an outstretched palm on his chest.

“It's not really a good time,” Emily said with a sad smile, “Hanna kind of wants to be alone.”

“What happened,” Lucas asked from the porch.

“She had a tough day yesterday,” Emily said, “It wore her down. She'll be okay.”

“I just want to see her,” Caleb insisted trying to move forward again, but Emily's hand didn't budge.

“She knows you're here, Caleb,” Emily said firmly, “It's not a good time.”

“It hasn't been a good time for awhile,” Caleb said, “What's going on with her?”

Lucas placed his hand on Caleb's shoulder and shook his head at him. When Caleb turned to look at him he pulled his hand back and turned uncertainly to Emily. After a moment of silence he seemed to have steeled himself for whatever he was going to say and turned back to Caleb.

“Maybe we should go,” he said quietly.

“Thank you,” Emily said with a gentle smile, “I promise I'll get her to call you when she's ready to see people.”

“Other than you,” Caleb said.

Emily flinched at the dig and some part of her recognized that Lucas was flinching in sympathy. She stepped back inside to close the door, but was stopped by Caleb's hand on her arm.

“I'm sorry,” he said, “I didn't mean...”

“Thank you for stopping by,” Emily said politely.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, Caleb turned and began to walk away. Lucas hesitated for a minute, shifting back and forth on the step. He finally looked up at Emily and she could see the worry in his eyes.

“She's going to be okay, right?” he said tentatively.

“Yeah,” Emily said with a smile, “I think she will be.”

“Thank you,” Lucas said, “for being there for her.”

With that Lucas turned and hurried after Caleb. Emily watched as they met up and then continued watching until they turned the corner and disappeared from sight.

~~~

Hanna was curled up in a ball on the bed with her back to the door when Emily made her way back upstairs. Emily walked over to the bed and gently put her hand on Hanna's back. Hanna silently turned her head to look at her as she sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Scoot over please,” Emily said softly.

Hanna wiggled a little closer to the other end of the bed and Emily crawled under the covers with Hanna, wrapping her arms around her waist as Hanna allowed her body to stretch out a little bit. She rested her chin on Hanna's shoulder and squeezed her a little bit.

“It's okay to still care about her,” Emily whispered, “We all know that Mona loved you. She might not have shown it in the best of ways sometimes, but no one doubts it at all. She was there for you at a time when none of the rest of us were. Remember how mad you were at me when the school year started?”

“Well, yeah. You wouldn't even talk to me,” Hanna said with a scoff, before quickly continuing, “Which I totally get. You loved Alison and she was gone. I was a reminder or something, right?”

“And Spencer was never the best at connecting with the rest of us, even when Ali was alive, and Aria just ran away,” Emily said, “You're the only one of us who managed to build or maintain any kind of bond for a long time after Ali disappeared. So yeah. It's okay to still care about Mona. And it's okay to be angry at her.”

“If there's one thing we learned from Alison...,” Hanna began.

“It's how to hold the two feelings in tension,” Emily said brightly.

“I was going to say 'how to love a sociopath',” Hanna said with a sniff and a smile, “But there was also a lot of tension. I'll go with that.”

~~~

The weatherman had said that it would rain tonight, but Emily hadn't seen any of the signs as she walked down the dark Rosewood streets. Emily noticed that not just the graveyard, but the street for four blocks in every direction from the graveyard was completely deserted. No cars were parked. No dogs were being walked. No teenagers escorting their friends or their dates home. Just Emily and the few flickering streetlights.

As she walked up the path through the grounds of the cemetery, Emily glanced to either side trying to remember where her goal lay. She had only been able to bring herself to visit once and it had been so long ago.

Finally her eyes trailed across the name and the dates and she stopped and leaned back against the headstone. She closed her eyes and listened for any voices. Whispers. Whispers of thoughts. Ghosts.

“Hanna admitted that she loved you today,” Emily began, “She may have also called you a sociopath, which I'm kind of impressed that she knows the word, but she also admitted that she loved you.”

Somewhere in the back of Emily's mind Alison's laugh echoed. The dark one. The one that said that she appreciated that a funny joke had been pulled at her expense, but that also warned that no one joked at her expense.

“Someone else was killed,” Emily said, “Her name was Maya and I'm pretty sure I loved her. She won't be joining you here. Her parents wanted to bury her closer to them and they moved to the next town over pretty soon after they found your body. So, it's a little bit harder for me to say 'goodbye'. You're right here. I just walked here from Hanna's house and it took me five minutes, but Maya...”

“Grow a backbone, Emily,” ghost Alison whispered, “You're not fifteen anymore. You can drive. Go say goodbye to your gal-toy and come back to fabulous me.”

“Mona went insane,” Emily switched subjects, “I guess you already knew that. We just found out recently. Hanna hasn't been taking it very well. They had gotten close. After you...after you died. I really don't know if Hanna is going to make it through this. We all cared about you, Hanna included, but when you disappeared we could comfort ourselves with the thought that you were still out there somewhere and when we found out you were dead we were all there for each other and there was some sympathy for all of us.”

Emily looked off down the path for a moment and then stroked the top of the gravestone. She collected her thoughts, playing with the band still wrapped around her wrist.

“Hanna doesn't really have that, now,” Emily said, “She has me. I'm basically living in her room again. I was living with her, because...but I'm living there again because...well my reasons are mostly selfish, really. No one else seems to get it. It doesn't matter that Mona was secretly terrorizing us all for months. It wouldn't even matter if it turned out that she was the one who actually killed you, which, by the way, I'm not sure if you'd be impressed or upset with number of suspects in your murder. The thing is Mona and Hanna kind of belonged to each other. A little bit.”

Emily closed her eyes again. She leaned her head back against the top of the gravestone and was silent for a minute. When she started talking again, it was in a tone that said that she was talking for the first time.

“So, I'm taking care of Hanna these days,” Emily said conversationally, “She's had a bad fight with a good friend. You'd be proud of her though, she still gets out of bed in the morning. For the most part.”


	2. Oh, Honey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Pretty Little Liars. I'm not making money off of writing this.  
> On with the show.  
> Enjoy.

Hanna woke to the sudden feeling of her leg falling through the air and something tightening around her waist. This feeling was followed almost immediately by the feeling of something soft smothering her. She opened her eyes in a panic and found that her vision was almost completely obscured by a big wad of black. Hanna tried moving and heard a groan followed by the tightness around her waist increasing.

She rolled her eyes and blew the hair out of her face. Emily shifted slightly and then settled down again with her head on Hanna's arm. Hanna, her view clear now, realized that she was lying on the spare bed (Emily's bed) in her room and that her leg was hanging off the edge and the rest of her was wrapped up in Emily.

She also realized that she could hear voices out in the hallway. They weren't distinct enough that she could make out what they were saying, but she could make out who they were. She had no idea why her mother and Spencer were having a conversation outside of her room, but she knew that she should probably get up before they came in. So she tried to disentangle herself from Emily.

Emily, in her sleep, murmured and clung tighter to Hanna's waist, circling her fingers around Hanna's wrists. When Hanna still tried to separate herself she saw Emily's face fall in her sleep and a little pout beginning to form on her face. Hanna stopped and stared and couldn't help a little smile forming on her face as the sleeping girl brightened and buried her face deep into Hanna's side.

Hanna, no longer trying to escape, tried to adjust them so that they were both comfortable and she could slip back into sleep, but instead she found herself falling further into space. Landing on her bedroom floor with an 'unf' she looked back up at the bed to see the still sleeping Emily grasping at the air where she had just been.

Hanna stood and, leaning over Emily, whispered in her ear, “Maybe we should just stop pretending we aren't sharing a bed.”

She watched as a shiver passed through Emily.

“Then maybe we could use the bed we both fit on,” she finished with a smirk.

The sleeping girl writhed a little bit and then once again grasped blindly at thin air. She groaned a little and the pout returned. Hanna moved her mouth from her ear and was about to place a kiss on her friend's forehead when she heard her mumble something in her sleep. Hanna thought it sounded like 'Maya'.

Hanna found herself up and through the door to the hall faster than she could process. Her eyes were closed, her back was to her now firmly shut door, her one hand was to her chest, the other to her mouth and she had no idea how she had gotten there.

“Hanna?” Hanna opened her eyes to see both her mother and Spencer looking at her in confusion.

Hanna took a moment to come back to herself and then her eyes narrowed and, after a half second glance over her shoulder, she grabbed both of the other women and led them further down the hall.

“Do you have any idea how loud you are?” she whisper-shouted, “I could hear you through the door. I swear, if you woke Emily...”

“Hanna,” Spencer began in her normal voice, before Hanna shot a glare at her and she continued in a whisper, “Calm down.”

“What are you even doing here?” Hanna asked, her brow furrowing.

“I came to see Emily,” Spencer said in a hoarse coo, “I wanted to know how she was doing. We haven't seen her in weeks.”

Hanna was about to reply that Spencer hadn't seen _her_ in weeks either, but she was interrupted by the sound of her phone beeping in her room. Her mind reflexively flickered over what she and Mona had planned for today, because who else would call her this early in the...but then her mind flitted away to how her phone was going to wake up Emily, skipping right over the realization that stood in between.

She waved Spencer downstairs and dashed into her room to stop the cell phone's ring, noting her mother following Spencer downstairs, their heads bent together in whispered conversation.

1 Missed Call

Caleb

She turned off the ringer on her phone. She glanced surreptitiously over at Emily's bed and might have seen Emily's eyes watching her, but then she blinked and Emily was fast asleep, her legs messily entwined with the blanket and her arms gripping the pillow tightly.

***

As Hanna slid into a seat at the kitchen island, her mother got up and began pouring her daughter a cup of coffee. Spencer, sitting in the seat next to the one where Hanna was now settling, watched her friend's face, trying to work out what had her so worried. Hanna took a sip of her coffee as soon as the mug was placed in her hands, but she wasn't conscious of what she was doing.

“How is she?” Spencer asked.

“Hmm?” Hanna asked distractedly, her eyes only flicking to Spencer for a moment.

“Did we wake her?” Spencer pushed.

“Who? Emily?” Hanna asked, “No, she's sleeping like the dea... she's still sleeping.”

“So, how is she?” Spencer asked again.

“Sleeping,” Hanna responded, stirring her coffee.

Spencer opened her mouth to ask more questions, but Hanna suddenly turned to face her head on and Spencer stopped in her tracks. Hanna couldn't really be bothered putting up with this right now. She looked Spencer up and down and then with a nod of her head, she decided exactly what she wanted to say.

“Look, Spence, can we just not do this right now?”

“Okay,” Spencer said confused, “Is everything alright?”

Hanna opened her mouth to make excuses, but the first one to come to mind was that she had plans with Mona. She hadn't even thought about why that excuse wasn't going to work. She hadn't realized that Mona was gone so far today. Until she did. Her mouth clamped shut. Then she thought about venting to Spencer about her Mona problem, but then she remembered that this was Spencer. Her mouth clamped shut again.

She looked around for help from her mother, but at some point she must have left. When did she leave? How did she not notice her leave? Had she always been this oblivious to what people were doing around her?

“Hanna?” Spencer asked worriedly.

“I just woke up, Spence,” she said, “I'm not even done with my coffee.”

“Hanna, you're not the only one that cares-,” Spencer began.

“I need to pee,” Hanna interrupted, pushing her coffee aside and standing up, “Excuse me.”

“Hanna!” Spencer cried out in frustration.

Hanna whirled around on Spencer and stalked several steps towards her. She crossed her arms across her chest, but leaned into Spencer's personal space. She didn't hesitate for even a moment over what she was going to say this time, she drew in a deep breath and spoke.

“You know what? No offense, Spencer, but do you really think you're the best person to talk to someone who has lost someone? In all honesty you're probably one of the worst people I could think of to...,” Hanna paused and took a breath, “Just go, Spencer.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Spencer replied in a hurt tone.

“Do you remember what you told Emily when we thought Toby was dead?” Hanna asked, “Or how about how you talked to Melissa when Ian was 'missing'?”

“That's not fair. I thought that they-,” Spencer began.

“Were A? Killed Alison?” Hanna asked.

Hanna picked up her discarded coffee mug from the counter top and handed it to Spencer.

“Here,” she said, “Put something in your mouth other than your foot.”

They stood like that for a moment; Hanna glaring at Spencer and offering up the coffee cup, Spencer staring dumbstruck at the cup in Hanna's hand. Eventually Hanna huffed and put the coffee back down on the counter.

“I really need to pee now,” she said with a sigh of frustration, “Look, we love you, Spencer, but judgmental and martyred is not what we need right now.”

With that Hanna turned and walked towards the stairs. She didn't hear Spencer leaving and she had this funny mental image of Spencer just sitting, staring at where she had been standing, with her mouth hanging open. A little voice in her head adopted a faux sympathetic tone and said “Oh, honey. That is not a good look on you.”

The voice sounded familiar.

***

When Hanna stuck her head into the bedroom she saw Emily pulling herself into a sitting position on the edge of her bed, her brow furrowed slightly. She felt the frown that had been cemented to her face for the last ten minutes melting away as she walked into the room and saw Emily smile at her.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” Emily replied, “You were gone when I woke up.”

“Mom let Spencer in,” Hanna said with a little frown.

“Oh,” Emily said with that same brow furrow.

“She's downstairs staring at a coffee mug, waiting for me to pee,” Hanna said with a smirk.

“What?” Emily laughed.

“I might have just yelled at her,” Hanna said with a guilty face, “She probably wasn't expecting that.”

“Why would you...,” Emily trailed off, “Was she talking about Mona?”

Hanna moved over to the bed and sat down next to Emily, laying her head on Emily's shoulder. She closed her eyes for a moment and let out a breath, playing with the base of of her ring finger. After a few moments she let her head shift so that her eyes met Emily's.

“That would require her to remember that Mona existed,” Hanna said, “She came to see if _you_ were okay.”

Emily shifted uncomfortably on the bed.

“Is it selfish of me to want people to check up on me too?” Hanna asked quietly.

“No, Hanna,” Emily said with a coo and a sad smile.

Hanna shifted uncomfortably and stood up suddenly. She tried to stick her hands in her pockets, only to discover that she was still wearing her pink sushi print pajamas and that they didn't have pockets. She turned and looked at Emily and smiled guiltily.

“Do you want to see her?” Hanna asked sheepishly.

“No,” Emily said, shaking her head, “No offense to Spencer, but do you remember when we thought Toby was dead?”

“That's what I said,” Hanna almost squealed.

“You were kind of great that night,” Emily said softly.

“So,” Hanna said blushing, “What do you want me to tell Spencer?”

“Hanna,” Emily said, “You shouldn't have to fight my battles for me.”

“I'm not,” Hanna said, “I'm asking you to tell me how to fight _my_ battles. Apparently calling her a horrible human being and telling her to leave didn't work, so...”

“Han, you didn't,” Emily said reprovingly.

“I didn't use those words,” Hanna said, “But there might have been subtitles.”

“Subtext?” Emily asked,

“Sure,” Hanna said, “So...”

“Just tell her what you told your mom,” Emily said, “And then say we have plans.”

“What I told my mom?” Hanna asked, “That I have no compassion in the morning?”

“Yes,” Emily said, “It's not true, but you seem to believe it.”

“It's true,” Hanna said, “Just maybe not with you.”

The words were out before she really thought about them. She paused, blushed, and walked out the door while remaining very aware that Emily's eyes were following her in curiosity as she went. When she was out the door she found herself in the same position that she had found herself when she had left the room earlier.

***

The doorbell rang twice as Hanna was walking down the stairs and when she reached the bottom she found Spencer reaching to let whoever it was in. Hanna rushed down the last few steps and put herself between Spencer and the door. Spencer came up short and looked at Hanna confused.

“Hi. Sorry about earlier,” Hanna got out quickly, “I'm crap in the mornings, but Emily is doing okay and we kind of need to get ready for plans we have later, so...”

Hanna reached behind herself and pulled the door open. When she turned around she found a smiling Aria standing on the front porch.

“Oh. Aria. Good, you can take Spencer home. We're not really fit to be seen by company right now. Who is that?” Hanna realized that she was talking pretty fast, but she didn't understand why it was taking so long to get a response about the strange man standing next to Aria on the porch.

“I've got a delivery,” the man said after a moment, “Are you Hanna Marin or Emily Fields?”

He seemed a little slow and his eyes were red shot. Hanna was pretty sure he was stoned. She sighed, but while still pushing Aria and Spencer out the door she replied to the delivery boy.

“I'm Hanna,” she said, “What's the delivery.”

The delivery boy looked at his hands confused and then looked to both sides like he was trying to find a package. Hanna decided that he was definitely high.

“You put them over there,” Aria offered helpfully after a minute.

The stoned delivery boy looked shocked that he had put the delivery by the side of the door, but he leaned down and picked them up anyway. When they came into sight she saw a basket-bouquet of bunches of a variety of blood red flowers. Everything from roses to snap dragons to lilies. She accepted the basket, looped it around her arm by the handle, and pulled out the card, still not so subtly pushing Spencer out the door with her spare hand.

To: Hanna Marin and Emily Fields

The from was left blank and then the message read: Condolences.

Hanna shut the door in the curious faces of Aria and Spencer, the delivery boy having already stumbled away, and placed the flowers next to the door. It almost read like a message from A. A message from...She really didn't want to think about it.

***

Hanna had forgotten why the second part of Emily's message to Spencer hadn't been a lie until Emily's mom showed up at the door that night bearing beef over rice or something. It wasn't until Hanna answered the door at her mother's behest that she realized that she was still wearing her pajamas and that they did actually have plans.

“Hi, Mrs. Fields,” Hanna said meekly, “Emily is in the kitchen. Please excuse me, I forgot something upstairs.”

Hanna could swear she felt Mrs. Fields' judgmental/worried gaze following her all the way through her panicked dash up the stairs and into her room. She grabbed the first matching clothes that looked clean and threw them on. It wasn't until she was making sure that her hair looked managed that she realized that she was wearing Emily's sweats and Mona's blouse.

She quickly tore the entire ensemble off and fought to get a handle on her breathing. She was pretty sure that she was hyperventilating. She was pretty sure that she wasn't usually this close to the floor. She was pretty sure that there was a hand on her shoulder.

She looked up and saw Emily. Emily was there. Breaths slowing down. Emily was rubbing her back softly. She could feel her legs beneath her. Emily wrapping her arms around her midsection.

“I thought I threw them all out,” Hanna said, “Months ago.”

“Do you want me to do it?” Emily asked softly.

“No,” Hanna said quickly, “Just put it back.”

Emily stood back up and stepped away from her and it was at this exact moment that Hanna realized that she was practically naked and curled up in a ball on the floor. She pushed herself up and grabbed for the closest drawer of the closest dresser and grabbed the closest tops and bottoms.

They didn't match.

She didn't care.

***

Hanna almost snorted when she realized that she wasn't the only one at the dinner table just pushing her food around on the plate. Everyone, even Pam, seemed to have no appetite. It was a shame, her inner fat girl could tell that the food that Pam had brought over looked really good and also told her that it would make her feel so much better if she just finished off the food for everyone, but her stomach was telling her to just stare at it. Make it squirm.

By the time everyone had gotten tired of pretending that they were actually thinking about eating anything, everyone was missing Hanna's old dog. When her dad's story about it going to live on a farm hadn't worked on Hanna, everyone tried to convince her that it had died of old age. Hanna was still convinced that it had died of over feeding. She was also pretty sure that was why she was never allowed to get another dog.

Hanna winced at the memory of her father commenting that that was probably why she felt the need to take in strays. This was three months ago, when he came over, after Mona was institutionalized, to make her feel better. She had glared at him and walked out of the room. She would probably do it again the next time she saw him.

***

Pam went home. Emily went to bed. Hanna got in a car and drove.

***

Hanna was expecting the nurses to be reticent about letting her in, but now she was getting that creeping suspicion again. The suspicion that Mona was blackmailing the staff. They led Hanna through the halls and left her alone at the door to Mona's room.

Hanna opened the door and looked in at Mona lying on the bed staring up at her. With a nod of Mona's head, Hanna sighed and slid to down the doorway to the floor.

“Hi,” she said and then lapsed into silence.

***

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: There are actually 2 ½ scenes in this that I had not planned on writing when I began, but they just sort of appeared as I was going along. On the other hand I actually expected Pam and Ashley to have dialog in this chapter and maybe for Aria to have more than one line, but cest le vie.


	3. Meticulous. Gorgeous. Perfectly Drawn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Apparently I have more difficulty with Rosewood outside of the Marin household. I think I also might have a harder time writing Emily than Hanna. All in all, not sure how happy I am with this chapter.  
> On with the show.  
> Enjoy.

Emily slowly drifted into consciousness as she became aware of a repetitive clicking sound coming from the room. Her eyes floated open and, in the light drifting in through the window from the moon and the streetlights, she saw Hanna sitting next to the window with her forehead pressed against the glass and her nails nervously tapping against the sill. Her face was blank or maybe sad. It was hard to tell these days, Emily was pretty sure that for Hanna sad had become the new blank.

For several minutes Emily watched Hanna stare blankly out the window. She was pretty sure her friend still thought that she was asleep. She probably should be. They both should. The little red lights on the alarm clock on Hanna's bed stand read 4:30am and they were starting back up at school in the morning. This morning. In a little over four hours.

Hanna's fingertips continued dancing along the window sill. Tatatap tap tap. Tatatap tap tap.

Emily stretched and began to push herself up in bed with every intention of asking Hanna what was going on, but as she pushed herself up Hanna's form disappeared from the window and she saw a shadow rushing towards the other bed and heard a creak and a rustle of bedding. By the time Emily shifted her gaze, Hanna was tucked firmly in her own bed, looking for all the world like she was fast asleep.

***

Up and down the hallway students turned to stare as Emily and Hanna walked through the main doors of Rosewood High. A summer away hadn't dissipated the chatter about last years tragedy and scandal, it had only put it temporarily on ice, while the girls cloister themselves and brought themselves to a point where they could almost bear to think about what had happened. Emily didn't know whether the current interest was because of her dead girlfriend or Hanna's institutionalized friend, but she figured it didn't really matter. School was back, they couldn't escape, and this year was going to be hell.

Beside her Emily felt Hanna move closer and she felt the backs of their hands brushing together. She looked over at her friend and saw Hanna's eyes wide with terror. Her gaze darting around at all of the eyes centered on them.

“Han,” Emily said softly, “It's going to be alright.”

Hanna's eyes anchored themselves onto Emily's face and Emily could see that the fear wasn't really fading, but that there was also some sadness seeping in. Then after a moment of concentration, Hanna's eyes gathered a sheen of determination, her chin raised and she took a step from Emily. Her eyes narrowed and she shot intimidating looks at all of the gathered students, who in turn averted their gazes and walked away.

“Are you sure you're okay, Em?” Hanna asked.

It took a moment for what Hanna was asking to completely sink in as Emily was still staring off at the emptying hall, shocked that Hanna had managed to drive everyone off when she had seemed so...meek a moment ago. Eventually, she heard the words that Hanna had put together what must have been minutes ago, but somehow they didn't seem to go together right.

“What?” Emily asked.

“I know it might be hard,” Hanna said, “Constantly being reminded. The staring, the whispers, being all of these places that have happy memories of the two of you. I swear to god, if anyone gives you any trouble-,”

“Hanna, I'm fine,” Emily said quickly.

Hanna's voice had been strong, her eyes had been fierce, but Emily was still fairly certain that Hanna hadn't just been talking about Emily and Maya. The school would be more of a reminder of Mona than anyone else. Maya had barely ever been here; she had only been a student for about a month and, even then, they had spent most of their time together outside of school. It hurt thinking about all the time that they wasted apart, but she wasn't being haunted here anymore than anywhere else.

Hanna nodded. She turned toward their path down the hallway and began to walk fabulously along. She took the perfect five steps before turning her head so that her hair fanned out beautifully and her eyes locked perfectly on Emily's and she stopped for a moment there in the middle of the hall. Emily was fairly certain that this was all pointedly a performance to demonstrate how fine Hanna was being back in school.

“Are you coming?” Hanna asked with an impatient tone, “I want to get a good seat.”

Emily smiled and raised an eyebrow.

“In the back, by the window,” Hanna clarified, “Best seat in the house.”

***

When the time for lunch came, Hanna and Emily walked into the cafeteria not even conscious of their linked arms, quietly discussing what they would be doing once they were free to leave the school and go home. Mrs. Marin had strongly suggested that they do something outside of the house after school, but they were both pretty sure that she knew that she was pushing her luck.

When they got to their usual table, they found Spencer and Aria already sitting down and staring at the place where Hanna and Emily's arms linked in curiosity. The two girls broke apart and moved to slide in from opposite sides of their chairs, but as they adjusted their seats to make themselves more comfortable Emily felt Hanna's shoulder brush up against her arm and she felt her hip press up against Hanna's. She looked to the two girls sat across from them, but after a moment their eyes drifted away from where Hanna and Emily crowded together and back to their own food.

“How are your classes,” Aria asked cheerfully.

Hanna looked up from the table and gave Aria a pointed look, but then let herself smile reassuringly as well.

“It's school,” Hanna said with a smirk, “I'll suffer through it until I'm done.”

“Personally I think this is going to be a good year,” Spencer said with a smile, before turning to Emily, “I know it's going to be tough for you with Maya gone, but can you imagine how much easier our lives are going to be now that we don't have to worry every time we get a text message?”

Emily felt Hanna's entire body tense next to her. She reached out her hand to grasp Hanna's, but Hanna had already moved it to rest tensely on the edge of the table top. Emily had a terrible feeling that she knew where this was going. She had a terrible image in her head of Hanna pulling herself across the top of the table and shouting Spencer down...again.

“I know,” Aria provided, “I'm not sure I even remember what it's like not to be afraid of my phone. I think it's going to take some getting used to.”

“Ding dong. The bitch is dead,” Spencer intoned.

Emily could hear two things at once. The first was the sound of Aria starting to hum the tune of “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” from _The Wizard of Oz_. The other was Hanna's chair scraping back across the floor as she pushed herself away from the table and walked out of the room without a word.

“What was that about?” Spencer asked in a tone that said that Hanna's sudden exit affronted her on a personal level.

“I think I should go too,” Emily said quietly, and then got up and left.

She could still hear Aria humming as she walked out the door.

***

Hanna was in the last place that Emily would have thought to look for her, so she had done two laps of the rest of the school by the time she found her there. It was a little alcove on the west side of the school building. It had a little bench and a sundial and it was really kind of nice.

Emily spotted a lighter spot on the brick wall behind the bench that she was pretty sure meant that once upon a time there had been a plaque indicating who had donated the alcove, but it had long since been torn off. She imagined it was some student who had gone on to academic fame. Or maybe it had just been donated by a graduating class.

Hanna lay on the bench with her eyes closed and her arms crossed tightly across her chest. Emily quietly set herself down on the ground next to Hanna and watched Hanna for a few moments. Hanna's forehead was scrunched up and her lips were drawn in a flat line and every few moments she saw Hanna wiggle on the bench and her face would scrunch up even more, but through all of this Hanna's eyes stayed stubbornly closed.

Emily reached out and tentatively took one of Hanna's hands from off her chest and gently began to rub circles into the back of her palm. Hanna's eyes slowly drifted open and she slowly turned to look at Emily.

“This was our place,” Hanna said softly, “After Alison disappeared and you all abandoned me...when we were in Junior High there was a birthday party and a trampoline and my weak stomach. I wound up sprawled out sideways on the trampoline, lying in my own vomit, but Alison hadn't started tearing me...rebuilding me yet, and my dad had gotten me a new dress and I was feeling pretty good about myself, so I climbed off of that trampoline as gracefully as I could and I turned to the crowd that had gathered...all of them just staring at me, I was kind of terrified, but I faced them and I took a bow.”

“That sounds like you,” Emily said with a smile.

“Mona was there and it was then and there that she decided that she wanted to be my friend. Alison found me three days later,” Hanna said, “I loved Ali. I really did, but you know what she did to me...to both of us...for years. All of my self worth for years was based on her say so and, when she disappeared and you shut me out and Aria ran away, I had nothing. Mona found me. It wasn't even about being popular when we first started out. She was just there for me. We would sit here and talk. She let me be a person again.”

“Hanna-,” Emily began.

“No,” Hanna pushed herself up and looked down on where Emily sat next to the bench, “You say that that little girl on the trampoline sounds like me? That's only because of Mona. That's only because she was there with me and we both clawed our way out of the vomit and fear together. Under our own steam. That was me and Mona. That was Mona.”

Hanna brushed the tears that were beginning to form away from her eyes and stood up, pointing back in the general direction of the cafeteria. Her hand shook as she spoke;

“I can't look at them,” Hanna nearly shouted, “Because they took away...I told you the other day that I understood why you shut me out after Ali disappeared and I do. Now more than ever. Not only do I see Alison tearing me down every time I look at them. I see us all hating A. All hating the girl who helped pull me back up and another part of that girl on the trampoline dies.”

“We don't hate the Mona who loved you, Hanna,” Emily said softly.

“You heard, Spencer,” Hanna retorted, “Hell, you heard Aria. Ding dong. The bitch is dead.”

“Okay. What about me?” Emily asked.

“Huh?” Hanna asked.

“None of you ever stop reminding me; I was closer to Alison than any of you. A has done more to me than almost any of you,” Emily said, “You're looking right at me.”

“You're different,” Hanna said softly, “You're Emily. You get up early to make breakfast. You walk little old ladies across the street, whether they're nice to you or not. You apologize for things that aren't your fault. You don't judge. You gave Toby the benefit of the doubt. You almost dated a girl after she tried to drown you.”

“I'm different because I'm a pushover?” Emily asked.

“No,” Hanna cried out, “You're different because you're...better than us. Genuinely better.”

“Han, I'm not better than you,” Emily said, again taking Hanna's hand and rubbing circles.

For a moment Hanna was silent. Her eyes drifted around the alcove and then over Emily and then over where their hands met. She used her free hand to brush away some residual moisture from her cheek, before closing her eyes and speaking softly again.

“Mona found me after Ali disappeared. I was hiding in the band room. I was covered in Cheetos dust and I don't think I had changed my clothes in days. I wasn't just not stylish, I was disgusting. Mona came in and smiled at me and said 'Oh, honey. Cheetos? Really? If you're going to binge, go big or go home,'” Hanna half laughed.

“We snuck into the teacher's lounge. Stole Mr. Amis' gigantic bucket of ice cream and we snuck out here and ate it all. That night Mona walked me home and stood outside my bathroom door and wouldn't let me out until I had washed all of the grime out of my hair,” Hanna smiled.

“And she became your best friend,” Emily smiled back.

“Did she?” Hanna asked quietly.

***

Emily felt the pressure of Hanna's sides pressing into her for support as they made their way back into the school building. She felt their hips brushing together. She felt Hanna's heart beating and her breath struggling to get back to normal. She instinctively turned her face into Hanna's hair and placed a kiss into the crown of her head. Neither of their strides even shifted.

“Hanna, there you are,” Caleb's voice echoed through the silence of the abandoned hall.

Emily felt Hanna pulling in a deep breath, steadying her breathing, and her hand coming up to check her cheeks for moisture before placing a small smile on her face and turning to face Caleb.

Caleb stood, with Lucas at his side and a furrowed brow, at the end of the hall. Hanna broke away from Emily and began walking down the hall towards him. Emily trailed quietly behind. She noticed that Lucas was already looking nervously back and forth between Hanna and Caleb and she noticed that Hanna's fingertips were tapping silently against her thigh.

Tatatap tap tap. Tatatap tap tap.

“Hi,” Hanna said brightly, leaning up on her tiptoes and kissing Caleb softly.

“Can we talk?” Caleb asked, motioning further down the hall with his head.

“Sure,” Hanna smiled.

With that the two of them walked off. Emily looked after them and she felt a little bit of tightening in her stomach. Emily was somewhat aware of the fact that Lucas was watching her watching the pair as they rounded the corner, but he didn't comment and neither did she. When she couldn't see either of the pair anymore she turned to Lucas and smiled.

“Hi,” she said.

“I don't think that's going to be happening a lot,” Lucas said without prompt.

“What?” Emily asked, her voice more of a squeak than usual.

“Nothing,” Lucas said quickly, “I should probably go.”

***

The water streamed past Emily as she pushed herself through the pool. She could still feel this discomfort in her chest and she was trying to work it out in the peace of the water. She pumped her legs and moved her arms and, every precious breath she took, she could feel a little bit of the tension working it's way out of her.

Images kept popping up of Maya holding up that lame and sweet “Awesome Emily” poster and grinning from ear to ear. She would smile and smile, but all of the time she was fading away. Emily knew that even before Maya was killed she was beginning to fade away. It was a thought that she couldn't seem to outrun no matter how fast she swam, but as she worked herself to exhaustion she felt like she was coming to understand better.

She looked ahead and noticed a pair of small pink blurs lowering themselves into the water near the wall ahead and she pulled up short. She surfaced and looked up to see Hanna sitting on the edge of the pool, with her shoes set next to her, twiddling her toes in the pool and watching Emily with a small smile. As she floated there staring back, Emily felt the tension in her chest evaporate completely.

After a couple moments of silence, Emily swam the rest of the way to the wall and looked up at Hanna with the hint of a smile. She was staying completely still above the surface, but she was pumping with all her might underneath.

“Hey,” Emily whispered.

“Hey,” Hanna replied, “Do you think I can stay here for awhile?”

Emily felt a small but distinctive thud beneath the surface. She watched as Hanna shot her gaze around the pool nervously, her own gaze never leaving Hanna's face. After a few moments she felt her smile grow.

“Of course,” she said.

***

The path was more familiar now. Easier to walk. The streets were still abandoned for blocks in all directions. Emily found herself shivering as she walked up the path. Absently going over what she would say in her head. She wasn't sure how long she should stay, it looked like the clouds would be bursting any minute, pouring torrents down on anyone not tucked away in their safe houses.

As she came around the last turn in the path on the way to Ali's grave, Emily spotted a figure. Red. The word that came to mind to describe the figure was 'red'. She couldn't tell exactly how tall the figure was, but it wore a red coat that might have been identical to Vivian Darkbloom's and a black beret that concealed it's hair.

Emily stopped in her tracks and tried to be completely silent, but the figure turned slightly in her direction and then ran off into the deeper recesses of the graveyard. Emily rushed over to the grave. On the gravestone a flower had been painted in a bright red. Meticulous. Gorgeous. Perfectly drawn, except for one petal that had been left half-way finished.

Emily softly ran her fingers over the gap in the painting. Underneath, Ali's name shined through.

“Are you alright,” Emily whispered.

Nothing but the whistling wind answered.

***

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Not as happy with how this turned out as I was with other chapters. Couldn't work out how to end a few of the scenes and had trouble starting a few of the others and overall those scenes all feel a little bit awkward to me. I'm also starting to realize that pretty much all of the breakdowns that I've written so far have been Hanna's. I think I should really remedy that soon.


	4. Close Enough

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Pretty Little Liars. I'm not making money off of writing this.  
> On with the show.  
> Enjoy.

Mona is dead. That's all Hanna needed to remember. Mona is dead. Mona is dead. Mona is deceased. No more. Mona? Mona who? Dead Mona? She's dead. Has been for...how long? Since Ali disappeared? Since they found Ali's body? Since Hanna got hit by a car? No, she didn't give Hanna a makeover after she got hit by a car. That right there certainly wasn't the spot where Mona staved off the gawkers after another vicious rumor. Because that never happened.

“Oh, honey,” the voice was soft. Mocking. “Even if I was dead, do you really think that I would ever leave you?”

***

The water streamed past Emily as she pushed herself through the pool. Hanna watched – transfixed – the sloshing water rocking her lightly each time Emily reached where she floated near the wall of the pool. Each time Emily flipped over and swam away again. Hanna's heart beating more with each beat of Emily's feet against the water, slowing down again with each stroke back.

Beautiful.

“Marin!” the voice pulled Hanna out of her reverie and she turned her head to Coach Fulton glaring down at her, just as another wave rocked her against the wall.

Hanna pulled herself upright on the wall and looked up at the towering figure of the coach. She could feel Emily settling into position right next to her and she felt her heart slow down. She felt the panic that had been quickly building fade.

“Yes, Coach?” Hanna responded brightly.

“Only the swim team is allowed in the pool area when there's not a lifeguard on duty,” Coach Fulton said in a gruff voice.

“Can I try out for the team, Coach?” Hanna asked with a pleading smile.

“I've seen you swim, Marin.”

“Right, Coach. Sorry, Coach,” Hanna shot out with an embarrassed smile, “I was just leaving.”

“Bye, Coach.”

It took a moment for Hanna to realize that she and Emily had said that last part in unison and by that point Emily was already pulling herself out of the pool beside her. She shot Emily a quizzical look, but Emily didn't even seem to notice.

“Emily,” Coach Fulton began, “We still want you on the team this year.”

Emily turned uncertainly to the coach and shook her head. She reached up and removed her swim cap and squeezed some of the water out of her hair.

“I'm still on the team, Coach,” Emily said and then glanced at Hanna, “But I should probably be more careful to practice when there's a lifeguard on duty.”

The first thing that slipped through Hanna's mind was the incident with Paige. She doubted that Paige would have gotten away with trying to drown Emily if there had been anyone else with them in the pool. Then she looked over and saw that Emily was still looking at her and she felt her brow furrow in confusion.

“If you want to stay...,” Hanna began.

“I'm kind of hungry actually,” Emily said with a small smile, before turning to the coach again, “Bye, Coach.”

“See you later, Emily,” Coach Fulton replied with a smile, “Take care of yourself.”

“I will, Coach,” Emily nodded as Coach Fulton walked off and then she turned back to Hanna, “Food, please.”

Hanna found a smile pulling at her face as she nodded back at Emily. She pulled at the collar of the one piece swimsuit that Emily had let her borrow and squeezed some of the water out of her hair. Her other arm remained firmly pulled across her chest to keep herself warm.

“Sure,” she said, “Just let me dry off and change. We have enough time left in the period, right?”

“Of course,” Emily said with a grin, “I didn't expect us to walk around the school dripping wet. I wouldn't put you through that. I can tell you it isn't very pleasant.”

Hanna couldn't be sure if Emily could tell that Hanna was blushing under the flush of exertion. Hanna knew that she had always been the one with the dirtiest mind in the group, but she couldn't help but wonder if Emily had put the thought in her head on purpose.

No.

That didn't seem like Emily.

God! Why did she have to catch that one?

And why couldn't she get it out of her head?

***

  
  


Hanna was already packing up her History textbook when the bell for lunch rang. It's not like they were learning anything interesting. In fact, Hanna was pretty sure that her 8th Grade History teacher had given the exact same lecture, so she wasn't actually learning _anything_. Teachers really were running out of ideas for how to excuse keeping kids in school until they were eighteen.

As Hanna walked out the door she spotted Mr. Coetzee giving her the signal that he was watching her. She smirked at him and mouthed back 'you too' and then let the classroom door swing shut behind her, not really caring that it shut in another student's face. It's not like they couldn't open a door. The _teachers_ didn't even think that they could get away with pretending that students shouldn't know how to do that by this point.

She turned away from the door and almost ran into Aria, but managed to swing around her at the last second. Aria smiled up at her and fell into step beside her. Hanna had the distinct feeling that Aria had been waiting outside the class for her.

“What's up with your hair?” Aria asked after a moment.

“I know,” Hanna winced, “This is why I _hate_ chlorine. And Emily didn't have a spare cap.”

“Okaaay,” Aria looked at her funny, but then shrugged and went on, “Did you have a test?”

“God, I hope not,” Hanna said with a scoff, “I zoned out after five minutes. I think I would have noticed though.”

“Thank god,” Aria said, “I finally got time with Ezra on VideoChat last night and I didn't really want to get off.”

“Did he?” Hanna said with a smirk, “Did you give him a show?”

“God! No! We just talked,” Aria cried out, “It was nice. He's been so busy lately, it was nice to hear his voice. See his face.”

“Have you considered just sending videos?” Hanna asked, “Me and Caleb used to do that sometimes when he was visiting his mom.”

“Not anymore?” Aria asked, “I mean that sounds like a good idea. Why did you stop?”

“He came back,” Hanna said quickly and then started walking slightly faster down the hallway.

***

  
  


Spencer and Aria were talking about something. It might have been about their Chemistry lab. It might have been about their boyfriends getting too frisky with each other. Hanna was pretty sure that she was supposed to know. In fact she was pretty sure that technically she was participating in the conversation as well, but she wasn't paying enough attention. She stayed away from affirmatives or negatives, they could wind up in the wrong place in a conversation too easily, she had learned that it was much better to stick with inquisitive grunts. Everyone liked an inquisitive grunt. It seemed like you were listening and let the other person keep talking.

“Is she flirting with Emily?” Aria said with something approaching a squeal.

Broken out of her haze, Hanna looked quickly around the room trying to see who Aria was talking about. She found Emily and her eyes seemed to just stop for a minute. She was pretty sure she was supposed to be looking for someone else, but Emily was talking.

“Probably,” Spencer said without much enthusiasm, “She _is_ gay and it _is_ Emily.”

Hanna finally looked over and saw Paige smiling at Emily. It was better than trying to drown her, she supposed. When Spencer had told Hanna about Paige harassing Emily for being gay, Hanna had felt her fists clenching. When Emily had told her about what happened afterward, Hanna had been tempted to kill the girl. It had only been made worse by how matter of fact Emily had been when she told the story. It was just part of the story of how she had found out that Paige was gay, it wasn't part of the story of how she had found out that Paige was secretly a serial killer.

“They look cute together,” Aria said in what sounded suspiciously like a conspiratorial tone.

“No,” Hanna said simply.

Aria didn't have time to question Hanna's reaction before Emily and Paige arrived at the table. Instead Aria turned to the new arrivals and smiled. Spencer looked at them and nodded. Hanna didn't look up from her meal.

It was too soon for the set up, even if it hadn't been Paige. It had taken more than a year for Emily to even to begin to get over Ali's death and nothing had even happened between them. Maya had been Emily's first _real_ real love and Paige was one step from sharing a padded cell with... Aria needed to keep out of it.

“Hi, Paige,” Aria said cheerily, “Would you like to join us.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Hanna saw Paige begin to smile back at Aria and then falter. This may or may not have been because Hanna had subtly moved her drink to her left. Which may or may not have happened to have been away from Paige.

“I'm not sure–,” Paige began.

“Any friends of Emily's are friends of ours,” Aria interrupted, still wearing the smile.

Hanna may or may not have started moving Aria and Spencer's drinks at this point. Spencer definitely slapped at Hanna's hand.

Hanna still hadn't looked up from her lunch.

“No, I've got to meet someone else,” Paige said with a smile at Aria, “I'll see you later, Emily.”

Emily nodded and began pulling a chair out from the table. Paige was gone before Emily had placed her hand on the backing. Hanna felt Emily's arm pressing against her shoulder and then felt a little shift as Emily's hip pushed up against her own.

“Hi,” Emily said with a small smile, “What are we talking about?”

“Mike and Jason are starting a band,” Aria said cheerfully.

“What? Really?” Hanna said.

“We've been talking about it for the last five minutes,” Spencer said in exasperated surprise, “It's to keep Mike out of trouble and to help raise money for Jason's new outreach program.”

“Yeah, I know,” Hanna said unconvincingly, “It's still surprising.”

“You know what was surprising,” Emily said in what Hanna was pretty sure was her own 'changing the subject' tone, “Why were you so nervous with Coach Fulton earlier?”

“I wasn't nervous,” Hanna said, “She told me I should leave, so I left.”

“I've never thought of you as someone who would back down so easily,” Emily said with a smirk.

“That woman scares me, okay?” Hanna huffed out with a smirk.

“I didn't think anything scared you,” there was a sparkle in Emily's eye.

Hanna and Emily kept their eyes locked until they heard a cough coming from the other side of the table. Hanna turned to see Aria and Spencer looking at her.

“Okay. I'll stop,” Aria said, apropos of nothing.

***

  
  


“My brain hurts,” Hanna whined, “Why do we need Calculus? All of the math that I'm going to need for life is 50% off and sales tax and I already knew all of that when I was eleven.”

“On the bright side, you're done for the day,” Emily said with a sympathetic smile.

“That just makes it worse,” Hanna said, “I have to sit through that entire class knowing that it's all that stands between me and sweet freedom.”

Emily laughed and knocked her shoulder into Hanna's lightly. Hanna smiled back at her and continued walking down the hall.

“Carry me?” Hanna asked with an innocent smile, turning back to face Emily, “Please?”

“No,” Emily smiled, “Not again.”

“Awww,” Hanna whined, “Why not?”

“You wriggle,” Emily replied, “And you also shouted a war cry. Right next to my ear.”

“You didn't drop me,” Hanna smiled.

“I will next time,” Emily laughed, “You kept forgetting to hold onto my shoulders.”

“There are better places to hold,” Hanna smirked.

“Like wha...,” Emily trailed off as she opened her locker door.

A red piece of paper fell out of the locker and onto the floor. Emily picked it up and unfolded it and then almost immediately dropped it again and ran off.

Hanna stooped down to pick up the paper and looked at it. It was covered in blood red writing. Not a lot of it made sense in context of the rest of it. There were little pieces about love. Little pieces about vikings. Little pieces about ownership of people. Hanna thought she might have made out the word sociopath somewhere in the letter. It also might have been soccer match. It wasn't the clearest handwriting and the ink kind of blended in to the paper.

Then Hanna looked at the bottom of the page. Where there should have been a signature, there was just one word: Condolences.

***

  
  


Emily was in the pool. Hanna knew she would be, it wasn't even a question. There was nowhere that Emily felt safer than in the water. She was pushing through the water, white waves spreading behind her like wings. Her usual swim cap and one-piece were noticeably absent as her hair spread out behind her in the pool and Hanna could see where her regular clothes were piled by the edge of the pool. Looked like she had dived in in a hurry.

Hanna walked slowly over to where the clothes pile was and slowly slipped her shoes off, put them on top of the pile, and slipped her feet into the water. Emily reached the other side and flipped and Hanna watched as she started powering back. She knew the moment when Emily knew she was there because her pace slowed down for a moment and then after a few more strokes she stopped and surfaced a few feet away from Hanna.

Her face was full of panic and Hanna just couldn't stand it. So she smiled. It was simple, so simple. Emily was panicked and trying to escape whatever was in that letter, so Hanna would let her.

“Why didn't we go to the Masquerade Ball together?” Hanna called out casually, “You kind of promised that we would.”

Emily's nose scrunched up for a moment, in the way that it did when she was confused, but then a small smile formed on her face. So small that Hanna almost couldn't see it from where she sat on the edge of the pool.

“Come a little closer,” Hanna coaxed, “I can't see your face.”

Emily reached the wall in two strokes and leaned her arms next to Hanna's legs. Her eyes fell to the pool for a moment and then she looked up at Hanna and smiled.

“Close enough?” Emily asked.

“It'll do,” Hanna said, “Now, why didn't you go to the ball with me like you promised?”

“We all went together, Hanna,” Emily said with a little chuckle, “And you had a date.”

“Yes, I did,” Hanna said with a nod of her head, “And she ditched me the second we got there.”

“You had, Caleb.”

“You didn't know that,” Hanna said pointedly, “And even if you had, that's no excuse. I never would have ditched my date.”

Emily laughed.

“It was about Maya,” Emily said suddenly.

“You thought she might show up that night?” Hanna asked quietly, “Wasn't she 'in San Francisco'?”

“No,” Emily said, “The letter. It was about Maya...and Ali. I've been visiting them. Mostly Ali.”

“I know,” Hanna said quietly, “Well I didn't know you had visited Maya – though I guess I should have – I knew that you had been going to visit Ali.”

“There was stuff in the letter,” Emily said, “Stuff that I only told them.”

Emily crossed her arms across her chest and dipped her head beneath the water for a moment and when she came back up she didn't look back up. Hanna kicked at the pool in a little bit of frustration, but stayed quiet.

“Some of the stuff I told Ali was from before she died,” Emily continued quietly, “But all of the stuff I told Maya was stuff I told her grave. She couldn't have told anybody.”

“How?” Hanna asked quietly.

“There was someone at Ali's grave yesterday,” Emily said, “I couldn't see who it was, they ran away when they saw me.”

“This is sounding way too familiar,” Hanna groaned.

“Do you think...Mona?” Emily asked.

“I would say yes, because I keep being really unimpressed with the security up at Arkham,” Hanna started, “But I was with Mona when you were at the cemetery last night. I saw you leaving when I was driving home.”

“Then who–,” Emily began.

“Marin!” came the shout from the door of the pool.

“Yes, Coach?” Hanna called back in irritation.

“What did I tell you about the pool area?”

“You know what, Coach?” Hanna started, “I got dumped out of a boat in the middle of a lake and had to swim to shore all by myself. I think I can handle sitting next to a twelve foot deep pool.”

“Hanna,” Emily said softly.

“No!” Hanna said gruffly, “Can I join the team, Coach?”

Coach Fulton just stood there in silence as Hanna stared her down. Hanna could feel Emily placing a calming hand on her leg, just above where it dipped under the water.

“Hanna, maybe we should go home,” Emily said softly.

Hanna nodded and finally broke eye contact with the coach. She looked down at where Emily was bobbing up and down in the water and nodded again.

“I'm not afraid of _anything_ ,” Hanna said, “Not anymore.”

***

  
  


Hanna was a little bit afraid. She had been to visit Mona so many times, but they had always been alone in Mona's room. One psycho she could handle (at least she could now), but she didn't think she was prepared with a whole day room full of them.

One of the nurses, this one was named Janel and she was slightly less Nurse Ratched than the others, led her to a door that she had never been to before. There was a window on the door and through it Hanna saw like a hundred different patients in various degrees of sedated, from that one girl that was staring at the wall to that one guy who was climbing the walls – literally actually.

Nurse Janel opened the door just as one of the orderlies managed to pry the monkey-man off of the wall. He was led away, doing what looked like an Irish jig as he went.

Mona was sitting at a table with another patient – a tall skinny girl with long straight brown hair – and was talking to her animatedly. Mona spotted Hanna crossing the room and smiled and said something to the girl she was talking to. The girl got up and walked away with a nod to Hanna. Hanna followed her with her eyes and saw her hugging the girl staring at the wall from behind. The other sedate girl didn't move.

“Hanna!” Mona squealed, “I can mingle now!”

“I noticed,” Hanna said with a nervous smile and a glance around the room.

“They don't bite, Han,” Mona said with a chuckle, “Except that one and that one.”

By the time Hanna turned back to Mona her hands were back at her sides and Hanna glanced around frantically. She thought she might have seen a hint of something red along one of the guy's mouths, but she wasn't sure...and it might have been ketchup.

“Which one?” Hanna said nervously.

“How are you, Han?” Mona asked with a sympathetic look.

“How did you find out all of that stuff about Ali?” Hanna asked intently.

“Whatever could you mean?” Mona said with a teasing smirk.

“You used stuff that was said in private,” Hanna said, “How did you find out.”

“Oh, honey,” Mona said, “Alison left a lot of stuff behind. I didn't slip all of it into Lady St Germain's closet while she slept. I didn't give all of it to Jason.”

“Where is it?” Hanna asked.

“In safe hands,” Mona said with a smile.

“Are those hands attached to a person?” Hanna asked in frustration.

“I certainly hope so,” Mona said with a laugh, “They were when I left them.”

“Monaaa,” and the whine was back.

“It's happening again?” Mona asked.

Hanna simply nodded.

“I'm sure you'll be fine,” Mona said with a smirk, “What's the worst that could happen?”

***

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I'm not sure I'm happy with a few of these scenes. I'm kinda feeling like this is the lightest chapter yet, but I also kind of think that it's good to do that once in awhile just to move the story along. I tried not to make the lightness too out of character.


	5. Can We Talk About Anything Else?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Pretty Little Liars. I'm not making money off of writing this.  
> Anyway, I'm not sure how happy I am with this chapter, but then again you're all used to that.  
> On with the show.  
> Enjoy.

She spotted Mike sneaking past her door during one of the brief moments when she let her eyes drift open. She didn't even attempt to get him to pause in his rush down the stairs. She heard Jason DiLaurentis greeting him in the foyer, but because the words drifted away just as suddenly as they had appeared and because they were followed almost immediately by a slamming door, Aria was pretty sure that was the sound of Jason and her brother going off to band practice and coincidentally escaping the horror at home.

Squeezing her eyes shut and pressing her pillow into both sides of her head didn't really help to block out the sound of her parents' shouting, but it felt like it should, so she tried anyway. The words muffled, but the meaning remained the same.

Three months ago they had been fighting about how to handle Aria and Ezra. Two months ago they had added Mike's burglary back into the rotation. A month ago Meredith had dropped off some papers and Byron's infidelity had been added back into the fray. Now they weren't really fighting about anything, they were just fighting and it was getting old.

Aria groaned and tossed her pillow aside. She pushed herself into a sitting position on the side of her bed and looked herself quickly over in the mirror; the blue bow on her yellow dress was straight, all of the feathers seemed to still be attached to the hem, and it hadn't gotten too wrinkly while she was laying in her bed.

With one quick adjustment of her headband, she jumped out of bed and snuck across the hall to Mike's bedroom. She wasn't as fast as her brother and she didn't feel like facing her parents on her way out the door. She had been taking the route to school through Mike's bedroom window for weeks. This didn't stop her from getting her shoe caught on the sill. As she stumbled and banged the shutter against the frame, she heard the shouting downstairs quiet down.

She was careful to close the window behind her when she went.

***

  
  


The humming began as soon as she reached the front steps of the school. It had been going on since the beginning of the semester. If she was honest with herself, she was pretty sure that it had been going on in one form or another since the Masquerade Ball last spring.

It had started with whispering that stopped whenever she tried to tune into what was being said. Then there had been drive by tauntings in the street. Mike had come home several times and told her about some new jokes that were being made about her among people that he had considered his friends. Would she put in a good word for them with the next English teacher? Had her father been the one that taught her about the student/teacher relationship?

At that last one she was at least somewhat mollified that someone had noticed her father's hypocrisy, even if it hadn't exactly been the point. Although it did hurt that Ezra was being compare to her father in this scenario...and it might have hurt even more that she was being compared to Meredith. At least Aria wasn't the other woman.

Now it was becoming more invariable. She knew where it was coming from next and she knew it was coming. The humming. Everyday. Everywhere at school. Today it was “Don't Stand So Close To Me” by the Police. It was so original. In no way, shape or form had she seen the same torment being dished out on a TV show years ago. In 2005.

Aria glared at the girls lounging at the top of the steps, next to the door. One of them had been dating Noel Kahn a month before he started showing an interest in Aria, the other had never gotten higher than a C in English in her entire life. As she passed by them she began humming “The Lady is a Tramp,” she doubted that they would recognize it, but she got great satisfaction out of the act all the same. She wondered if this was what Hanna felt like when she slapped Jenna.

It felt really good.

***

  
  


Aria watched Spencer meticulously cleaning every last inch of the test tubes that they had been using as the clock ticked its way down to the end of their Chemistry class. If anyone else had stopped their assignment five minutes early in order to prepare to leave then Mr. Donahue probably would have started shouting them down, he was a fairly combustible agent after all, but everyone knew that Spencer didn't stop until she was done and at least a few people knew that she wasn't done until she had done it perfectly.

As the bell rang, Spencer took one last scrub at her last tube with a flourish and then carefully placed it back into it's stand. Aria merely picked up her chemistry notebook, clutching it to her chest, and stood waiting for Spencer to be ready to leave.

***

The hall was full of people who jostled Aria around as she tried to keep up with Spencer. As she dodged around what felt like the twentieth girl who was twice her height, Aria ignored the humming that seemed to be coming from all sides of her.

“I wonder what that's about,” Spencer said as she looked around, “It's been going on for weeks.”

“Ignore them,” came a voice from behind them, “In a few years you won't even remember their names.”

Aria turned and smiled at Caleb as Spencer went off in the direction of her class. The hall cleared out in Spencer wake, leaving Caleb and Aria standing alone.

“I'm still surprised that none of your friends have this break with you,” Caleb commented with a smirk.

“You've been surprised for four weeks,” Aria said with a smile, “When do you think the shock will wear off?”

“Did you draw the short straw?” Caleb asked, “You had to take the free period that no one else wanted?”

“I think Spencer is the one who drew the short straw,” Aria laughed, “The only break she gets is lunch...though I think she wishes she could be in a class then too.”

“How are you all friends with this girl?” Caleb laughed.

“Spencer is nice. You get used to her,” Aria said, “By the way, can you do me a favor?”

Caleb motioned for Aria to follow him down the hall as he made his way to the cafeteria. They settled into some seats by the windows and Caleb looked around the empty room for a second before waving for Aria to continue.

“Is there anyway that you can set up my phone for video messaging?” Aria asked quietly.

“Are you going to use it to spy on someone or something?” Caleb asked with a laugh.

“No,” Aria said, “It's just...”

“Let me see your phone,” Caleb sighed.

Aria handed him her phone and he started looking it over. Aria looked on in curiosity and with baited breath as Caleb examined her phone from every angle and then sighed when he handed it back to her.

“Two hundred,” Caleb said with finality.

“What?” Aria asked.

“Two hundred dollars. You're lucky I have a spare camera from a busted phone lying around, because that kind of tech doesn't usually come that cheap and your phone doesn't come with,” Caleb said in full on business mode.

“What happened to the friends and family discount,” Aria asked hopefully.

“That was the friends and family discount,” Caleb said, “I would have charged anyone else for the camera anyway.”

“You were helping us for free before,” Aria couldn't stop herself from pointing out.

“I had lots of other business before,” Caleb said, “And I wasn't trying to put funds away for my exit from Rosewood.”

“Where are you going?” Aria asked, “Wouldn't your mom being willing to pay for your visit?”

“I'm not going to visit my mom,” Caleb said, “I think I'm just going away. The school computers say that I have enough credits to graduate already, I figure I grab the first bus out of here and then I travel for a little bit until I decide that I want to do something else. Maybe I'll go to college somewhere next year.”

“You have enough credits to graduate?” Aria asked in awe, “Spence has been packing on classes since she was ten and she's still short.”

“That's what the school computers say anyway,” Caleb said with a smirk, “Am I fixing your phone or not?”

“Does Hanna know that you're leaving?” Aria asked suddenly quiet.

Caleb winced and then looked out the window for a minute. He turned back to Aria and shook his head.

“As far as Hanna is concerned,” he said with a huff, “I'm already gone.”

***

  
  


Aria leaned against the bed of lockers across the hallway from Hanna's history class as she waited for the bell to ring for lunch. When Caleb had seen where she was heading after she handed over her cell phone with a promise to pay him on delivery, he had wished her good luck and walked the other way.

Now she was staring at the clock above the classroom door and clutching her binder to her chest like a teddy bear and wishing under her breath that the clock would move faster, that the bell would ring sooner and that Hanna would be there already.

Two minutes.

She began wondering why she hadn't seen much of Hanna since the summer had begun.

One minute and thirty-seconds.

She began to wonder if she was the only person that Hanna hadn't talked to about her problems.

One minute.

She began to wonder what Hanna and Emily talked about at night when they were trying to go to sleep. She knew Hanna could never resist talking to whoever was there if they were left alone too long. Whenever Hanna had stayed with her she would never actually get any sleep.

Thirty-seconds.

What was going on with her friends.

The bell rang and the hall filled. Aria could hear a faint humming coming from the other end of the hall as she spotted Hanna coming out of the classroom. She only spared a glance to where the sound was coming from before rushing over to catch up with Hanna.

“Hey,” Aria said as she saw Hanna noticing her arriving.

“Hey,” Hanna said, “No tests today.”

“Thanks,” Aria said.

The two girls walked along the hallway, not a sound passing between them. Aria forced herself not to focus on the humming that was still coming from further down the hall. Did these girls have nothing better to do? Her eyes darted up. Or boys?

Hanna wasn't talking. When did Hanna not talk. Aria couldn't remember the last silence that Hanna hadn't felt the urge to fill, but, as they walked down the hall, Hanna kept her eyes forward and her mouth shut.

“How's Caleb?” Aria asked to fill the conversational black hole.

“Same as he ever was,” Hanna said with a smirk that Aria was pretty sure meant that there was supposed to be some sort of inside joke in the phrase, “Why do you ask?”

“I haven't seen him with you a lot recently,” Aria probed.

“You haven't exactly seen me a lot recently either,” Hanna said with a shrug, “Our schedules don't exactly mesh.”

“But you and Emily–,” Aria began.

“Our schedules do mesh,” Hanna cut in quickly, “Are we done now? I want to get to lunch while there's still time in the day.”

After just a moments glance to see if Aria was going to respond to her question, Hanna stalked off towards the Cafeteria. As Hanna was turning the corner, Aria saw her meeting up with Emily at her locker and she watched as they fell into step with each other seemingly instinctively.

***

  
  


“I would be worried that my brother is monopolizing all of his time,” Spencer began and Aria noticed how she was already saying “my brother” as though she had been saying it all of her life, “But soundproofing is good work and Jason still seems to be the only person in this town that's willing to hire Toby.”

“We should get Ezra and Caleb to help out,” Emily said with a smile as she grabbed Hanna's water bottle and took a sip, “then every guy in our lives would be in the same place at the same time.”

“I know Jason and Mike have been looking for someone to play drums,” Spencer said with a smile, “And Caleb has already been homeless so he can handle it.”

Aria heard the humming starting up again and this time she was pretty sure that someone was providing vocals. She looked around briefly to see where it was coming from, before remembering that she was ignoring the humming.

“What is going on?” Spencer said while looking around, “Does our school have a Glee Club now?”

Aria noticed that Spencer said this last part with the tone of someone who knew for a fact that the school had no Glee Club. In fact Aria was pretty sure that Spencer knew every club in the school and was probably a member of most of them.

“Mr. Fitz totally strikes me as an accordion though,” Hanna said with a laugh as she grabbed the water bottle back from Emily with a faux glare, “Would they even have room for him in the band,” Hanna paused in thought, “They aren't a zydeco band are they?”

“Ezra plays the piano,” Aria offered weakly.

“Keyboards then,” Emily said with a smile, smacking Hanna's shoulder when she rolled her eyes, “What about Toby though.”

Hanna and Emily didn't even pause for a second before turning to each other and shouting their answer out in unison;

“Bass Guitar!”

Out of the corner of her eye Aria saw Spencer rolling her eyes as Emily and Hanna literally fell all over each other laughing. She also thought she saw a couple of the teachers giving the pair dirty glances as they rolled around on the floor trying to get their balance and their breath back. Seemingly in that order.

When they finally settled down and pulled themselves back into their seats, pressed pretty close into each other, Hanna turned to Spencer and said in her calm and serious voice;

“Can Lucas take the publicity shots?”

Spencer shot her a look.

“Please?” Hanna asked again.

***

  
  


It was herself as a peacock. At first she had only intended for it to be a peacock, but, looking at the nearly finished product, Aria was pretty sure that it had become a little bit of a self portrait. As the bell rang, she figured that maybe during the next class session she should give it boots. Just to finish off the image.

As Aria was packing up her things, she spotted Emily slipping through the door and settling into a spot in the back. Aria took a moment to decide and then slipped over to where Emily was unpacking her supplies.

“Hey,” Emily said with a small grin.

“Is something wrong with Hanna?” Aria asked.

“She'll come around,” Emily said quietly, “You're still one of her best friends.”

“I meant with Caleb,” Aria said dumbfounded, “Is Hanna _mad_ at _me_?”

“I don't think she feels as much support as she needs from you guys right now,” Emily said quietly, “Listen, I'm not sure I should be talking about this, but–”

“Ms. Montgomery,” came a voice from the front of the class, “As much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, don't you have another class to get to right now?”

“Yes, Mr. Maxwell,” Aria called out.

On her way out of the classroom she heard somebody whistling. It was the same tune. Did someone send out a memo? Was that made into the school song for the day? Was her inner monologue starting to sound like Hanna?

***

She spotted Hanna and Emily turning the corner on the opposite end of the hall as the school bell rang for a second time announcing the end of classes for the day. The guidance counselor waved at her and, in the brief moment that she took to stop and wave back, Aria realized that Hanna and Emily would be long gone by the time she pushed her way through the masses.

A tap on her shoulder nearly had her jumping out of her skin, but when she turned she realized that it was only Caleb and he was looking at her with a smirk on his face.

“Want your phone?” he asked.

“You've finished with it already?” she asked in wonder.

“You got a text while I was upgrading it,” he said, “It would have been wrong of me to peek, but because of some of the programing that I had to do it might have been moved to your viewed messages folder.”

“You've finished with it already?” Aria asked again.

“Yes,” Caleb said with a laugh, “I've finished with it already.”

“I don't exactly have the money right now,” she said.

“Don't worry about,” Caleb said, “Keep the money. Friends and family discount.”

“Your trip?” Aria asked.

“What trip?” Caleb asked with a smirk as he wandered down the hall and out of sight.

Aria smiled as she looked over her phone. She booted it up and watched with a grin as a new start up image played. When it was all of the way booted she immediately pulled open her text messages.

The most recent message was from; Unknown.

She pressed the image with a tiny sense of trepidation. Sure A was locked up, but there was still that instinct embedded in her. Every time she had gotten an Unknown sender in the past, something horrible had happened to someone she cared about. The file opened to a picture of her mother packing a suitcase into her car as her father looked on from their front porch.

The caption read: Condolences.

***

  
  


Her mother was gone when Aria got home. There was no shouting. There was no thumping. There was just her father sitting alone in the dark in the living room. Mike took one look around from the front doorway and just turned around and walked right back out of the house.

Aria considered going to her father for a moment, comforting him, but then she thought back over everything and realized that for the second time her mother had been forced out of their house for Byron Montgomery's mistakes. Aria turned the light on in the living room, reveling in the little inch that her father flinched at the sudden brightness, and then hurried upstairs to her room.

She could have flipped on her computer and easily slipped into a VideoChat window with Ezra, but she wanted to try out her new toy. She flipped on her phone and clicked on the video icon that Caleb had programmed in and typed in Ezra's username.

After about ten seconds a crisp image came on the screen and she smiled. Ezra was wearing his Hollis sweatshirt and his hair was fluffed up from sleep.

He looked beautiful.

“Hey,” he said.

“It has been suggested that I should give you a show,” Aria said with what she hoped was a convincing smirk.

“Whats up?”

Apparently it wasn't.

“My mom just left today,” Aria heard her own voice crack.

“Oh god,” Ezra said, “I'm sorry.”

“Can we talk about _anything_ else?” Aria pleaded.

“That would seem like the right thing to do,” Ezra joked weakly.

Aria laughed anyway.

***

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Don't hate me. This was always intended to be an Aria chapter. I don't even know why, possibly in an attempt to torture myself.   
> For a long time my outline for this story consisted entirely of “Hanna talks to Mona”, “Emily talks to Ali's grave”, “Hanna talks to Mona”, etc. Then as I thought up further ideas I would add in more or less what was going to happen before that in each chapter and then at the end I would flesh out with “Hanna talks to Mona about...”.  
> Got bored of that and under Chapter 5 I put “Aria talks to Ezra” and that's all that I had written down as a plan for this chapter until I heard “Don't Stand So Close to Me,” on the radio or something and that will always remind me of two scenes. The scene on Friends didn't fit, but the other one I could fit an Aria chapter around. Bonus points to people who know what scene I'm referencing.  
> Still not entirely happy with it, because I'll never be convinced that I actually get Aria as a character From my perspective she's the least fleshed out of the Liars (there are other characters who are less fleshed out than her), but, as I said before, I was probably trying to torture myself. I'm also not sure sure I'm entirely happy because I had no idea what I was going to do with Hanna and Emily in the scene that was listed in my notes as “Spencer talks about Toby doing soundproofing for Brothers' band and Aria watches Hanna and Emily's interaction” and I'm not sure I didn't make them too ridiculous for this story.  
> But thankfully, I'm much more excited for the next two chapters of this story.  
> Final note: Yes, I know that what Caleb did to Aria's phone would be an impossible task with the supplies that he is likely to have and in the time period provided. The explanation? Caleb is magic or I wanted to fit it into one chapter so that I didn't forget to put the conclusion in like I've done twice now for other things I meant to do. Will fix everything eventually. It's even in my notes now.


	6. Short. Uneven. Breaths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Pretty Little Liars. I'm not making money off of writing this.  
> On with the show.  
> Enjoy.

There was a certain freedom to it, being twenty-six for a night...or twenty-one as Spencer felt the need to remind her. She just couldn't stop smiling no matter how hard she tried to hide it. It wasn't really the party that was filling her with this euphoria. In all the time that she had known Alison, she had gone to more than her share of parties just like this - without the need for a fake ID - but tonight she didn't have to be herself.

Only three other people in this room knew Hefty Hanna and the only one that would actually use the name had vanished into the crowd for the night. Tonight she was twenty-one year old Hanna Dahl. As far as the world was concerned she was old enough to do anything tonight. That thought flew through Hanna's mind a second time immediately after the first. She could do anything tonight.

Hanna felt Emily's arm brushing against her own as she looked down at the game of pool drawing to a close in front of her eyes. She felt her eyes dart to the side of their own volition and, when the pressure against her side didn't vanish after a moment, she felt her smile grow.

"You know, I really like that top, Em," Hanna could feel a blush coming over her face and she dropped her eyes to the pool table, "And, um, I think someone else might like it too."

Hanna watched out of the corner of her eyes as Emily looked across the pool table at the guy who was checking her out. Hanna felt a tightening in her chest and realized that she was holding her breath. She let her eyes fall again.

"No," Emily said with finality and Hanna was breathing again.

"Why? He's drooling in his beer pong cup," Hanna said and realized in that moment that he was and it was disgusting, but she couldn't let the smile fade from her face – no matter how much she was praying that Emily wouldn't listen to her next sentence –, "Just go talk to him."

"No!" Emily's eyes met Hanna's and everything froze.

Hanna counted her breaths. The thought flitted through her mind again; tonight she could do anything. Her head began to move forward.

The moment was broken by a scream.

Spencer's sister's boyfriend's cute friend had fallen down the stairs.

* * *

Hanna woke feeling cold and it took her a moment to realize why. Sometime in the middle of the night she had flung her blankets to the other side of the bed and had curled herself around them like a life sized teddy-bear. Hanna tossed the blankets the rest of the way away from her and turned over to peer at her bedside clock. The lights read 5:45am. Hanna groaned softly and then glanced over at Emily.

Hanna quietly turned off the alarm clock and, pulling her discarded blanket lightly around her shoulders, padded over to where Emily still slept on the other bed. Emily was wrapped up in a thick Rosewood Swim Team hoody that just barely peaked out from where her quilt was pulled up to the bottom of her throat and she lay on her back – intermittently batting her hands at the air above her like cat paws. Hanna couldn't keep the smile off of her face.

Hanna glanced again at the clock. She knew that Emily often liked to wake up this early to go for a run or get ready for a swim before school – in fact when she had first woken up she had suspected that Emily's being an early riser might have been to blame – and she knew that in (she checked the clock again) five minutes, when the alarm didn't go off, Emily would be missing part of her morning ritual, but Hanna just couldn't bring herself to wake her sleeping friend.

"Noooo, not the kitten," Emily murmured from her bed while taking a particularly wild sweep with her faux-paws.

Hanna cocked her head to the side and smirked for a moment, before rolling her eyes and leaning down to place a soft kiss on Emily's forehead and pushing some hair off of her face.

"Em," she whispered softly, "Time to wake up."

Emily took one more blind swipe at the air, barely missing the top of Hanna's head, before blinking her eyes open and taking in her surroundings. A look of confusion settled over her face.

"Han?" she asked.

"It's time for your morning work out," Hanna said with a soft smile, "And I think that someone was about to do something nasty to one of your litter."

"Wuh?" Emily asked incoherently.

"You're lucky you're pretty," Hanna said with a pat on Emily's shoulder, "Do you want to go back to sleep?"

"Mmhmm," Emily mumbled, her eyes beginning to slide closed again.

"Ok," Hanna said with a smile and a nod.

"Han?" Emily asked again, slightly less blearily now.

"Yeah, Em?" Hanna asked with a smile.

"What time is it?" Emily asked, her eyes finally popping open.

Hanna really wanted to lie.

* * *

Forty-five minutes later Emily, dressed in sweatpants and a different hoody, sat down next to Hanna at the kitchen counter and took a greedy gulp of the glass of water that Hanna pushed in her direction without a glance.

"Have a good run?" Hanna mumbled through a spoonful of cereal.

"Fifteen laps," Emily nodded.

"The block?" Hanna asked

"Three square," Emily corrected.

"I should have just let you sleep," Hanna grumbled.

Emily stood up, ate a spoonful of Hanna's cereal, and then, smiling, patted Hanna on the head on her way out of the kitchen. Hanna watched her till she was out of sight and then, Hanna guessed once Emily had swallowed the cereal, she heard her call out.

"I'm gonna get out of these clothes and wash this sweat off."

Hanna's eyes followed the sound of Emily's trip until the shower started up and then she took another bite of her cereal, lay her head on the table and closed her eyes. Just listening.

* * *

There was a knock just as Hanna and Emily were about to head towards the door. Hanna continued to gather up her bag as Emily walked down the front hall to see who it was.

"Hello, Emily."

Hanna rolled her eyes when she heard the voice and began unceremoniously shoving the last of her things into her bag. She pulled her coat on over her shoulders and began walking determinedly towards the door.

"Hello, Mr. Marin," came Emily's respectful voice from further down the hall, "Hanna's almost ready."

Just as her her father came into view, Hanna saw him turn in her direction. He smiled at her and opened his mouth to speak. Hanna didn't waver in her course, she simply walked right past him out the door. He was halfway through a sentence when she slammed the door behind her.

"I thought I could give you girls–," and he was cut off.

Softly, through the door, Hanna could hear Emily apologizing on her behalf or maybe she was just saying she was sorry that things were this way. Maybe 'sorry' was just Emily's default response in awkward situations. There had been a story about Toby where she had talked about that, hadn't there?

Hanna pointedly ignored Kate watching her from the passenger seat of her father's car at the end of the block. She didn't let her eyes focus on anything in that direction, so she couldn't tell whether the other girl was bored, or annoyed, or angry, or hopeful, or contrite (a Spencer word if she ever heard one) and she didn't really care. She kept telling herself this.

She didn't care.

It was ten minutes and three blocks later that Emily caught up to Hanna. Hanna continued to silently and purposefully stomp down the street for a few more minutes, but then she felt Emily's hand slip into hers and her eyes darted to the side. She smiled softly and slowed her pace.

"Did I ever show you the turkey on the snowboard?" Hanna asked.

"Yes, you did," Emily said with a laugh, "Several times. And I already told you that it's animal cruelty."

"But it's funny," Hanna said, "And Sean said that it wasn't real."

* * *

Hanna hadn't even bothered to unpack her History textbook at the beginning of class. She had spent the whole class moving her pen across the pages of her notebook in a parody of writing that apparently Mr. Coetzee hadn't caught onto quite yet, despite his threats of watching her closely.

At the moment he was gesturing emphatically at something that he had drawn on the board that Hanna was fairly certain was supposed to be the head of Custer. That or a map of the planet. Or a turkey if she turned her head just right. All that she was really hearing was the ticking of the clock. The ticking that told her without the need to actually look that class would be over in a mere two minutes.

She glanced down at her notes to make sure that they were immaculate. Taken from this angle she was pretty sure that she was looking at a particularly thick cloud formation. That or the floor of her room right before laundry day. Or a litter of kittens if she squinted her left eye just a little bit.

It was better notes than she had been able to manage in Physics (it wasn't her fault that the second the lights went out in a class she was out like a... well... light) and it might have given her a couple of ideas for a project for Photography. She jotted down a couple of those ideas just as the bell rang and then she shoved her notebook into her bag and started towards the door.

As she was passing Mr. Coetzee, he gave her a significant look, pointed at the board, and gave her another significant look.

Hanna shrugged.

"The liberty bell," he said in frustration.

"That doesn't happen until 3:30," Hanna replied with a smile.

* * *

Aria was waiting for her outside of her classroom again. Hanna briefly wondered what the definition of stalking was, but then forced herself to smile as Aria tried to bump their shoulders together, but wound up only being able to make contact with her elbow.

"Hi," Hanna said brightly.

Aria followed along beside Hanna silently for a couple of minutes before, finally, turning to Hanna and tentatively broaching a conversation.

"So, I've been thinking," she began slowly, "Have you been up to see Mona at all since she..."

Hanna glanced at Aria for a moment, waiting for her to continue so that she could cut her off, but Aria just continued to walk along quietly, watching Hanna out of the corner of her eye.

"Did you try that thing that I suggested?" Hanna asked and after a moment clarified, "With Fitz and the videos."

"I only ask, because I know that you two were close and I thought maybe you might need –," Aria started back up again.

"I think my dad is trying to get me to bond with Kate again," Hanna said with a scoff, "I mean what  _ are _  we? A year old? I don't need Tom Marin setting me up on play dates with his daughter."

"Well, maybe he's trying to bond with you," Aria said, "Maybe this is just his way of making up for–"

"If he wants to make up for anything he can try buying me new a puppy," Hanna said gruffly, "I don't need another snake."

* * *

"And I swear to god, she's doing it just to torture him," Spencer said in frustration, "I mean I know that Jenna is supposed to be some sort of musical prodigy, but does she really think that she's going to fit in–"

"With our brothers and your boyfriend?" Aria finished, "I don't think we have to worry about that."

"Toby isn't in the band," Spencer corrected, "He's just soundproofing the shed."

"I thought he was the bass guitarist," Hanna questioned absently, not for a second taking her eyes off of where Emily and Paige were having a conversation in the far corner of the room. Had Emily just laughed? Was Paige brushing her hand over Emily's shoulder?

"You said that, Hanna," Spencer said, "I never said that. What are you looking at?"

In her peripheral vision (another Spencer word, where did they keep coming from?) Hanna saw Spencer twisting around in her seat to try to see what Hanna was seeing.

Emily glanced around and her eyes met Hanna's across the room. Seemingly noticing Emily's new focus, Paige turned around and spotted Hanna. Emily smiled. Paige's face fell and after a cursory comment to Emily, walked off defeated. Emily just glanced in her direction for a second, before walking over to where Hanna was sitting and pushing in next to her.

Hanna felt her breathing even out as Emily's shoulder pushed up against her own.

Still out of the corner of her eye, Hanna saw an expression pass over Spencer's face as Emily sat down. It was the same look she got when she used to think she had found a clue. In the old days. When Spencer knew that there was a mystery to be solved.

"Hey, Em," Aria said cheerfully.

"Hey," Emily said in a breath, her eyes finally breaking away halfway through the word.

* * *

Emily had taken several steps past the main doors of the school when Hanna grabbed onto her shoulder and pulled her back inside. Emily gave her a confused look, but Hanna just widened her eyes and nodded her head to the front steps of the school.

Kate was laid out on the steps with a magazine, while her stepfather paced back and forth a few feet in front of her, his eyes darting to the doors every other lap. Kate peered up at her stepfather and Hanna could see her rolling her eyes as she glanced down at her magazine again.

"She's going to see you," Kate said in a tone that suggested that this wasn't a thought that bothered her.

"Hanna will talk to me," Tom said without much conviction, "I'm her dad."

As Hanna was rolling her eyes in response, she saw that Kate was doing the same. Kate looked back down at her magazine and remained silent.

"Han," Emily whispered into her ear.

Hanna sighed and pushed the door open again and walked out of the school. Tom's head swung around to look at her and he immediately moved to intercept.

"Hanna," he nearly shouted, "I thought I could give you a ride home."

Hanna kept walking for several more steps. She could feel Emily hesitating behind her, but she could also feel that Emily wasn't stopping either.

She reached out behind her and found Emily's hand immediately. The gesture was meant to speed Emily up, but instead Hanna stopped, whirled around, and walked back to Tom purposefully. She could see Kate watching, but pretending to be bored, out of the corner of her eye, but she didn't stop glaring up at Tom.

"You  _ have _  to stop this!" she said, "You have a new family now, Tom. Stop pretending that you're still part of mine."

"Hanna...," Tom started.

"Hanna," Emily cautioned, squeezing Hanna's hand softly.

Hanna glanced at Emily.

Looked back at Tom.

Took a breath.

Turned.

Began to walk away.

It only took five steps before she felt a hand closing over her shoulder. She turned around and found herself face to face with Kate, her eyes the least hostile and least guarded that Hanna had ever seen them. Kate waited for a moment after Hanna turned around for both of them to get their bearings.

"He's miserable," she said simply.

Hanna looked over to where Tom was watching them from next to his car. His eyes drifted to the ground when he spotted Hanna looking at him. She played for a moment with saying something.

"Truce?" Kate asked softly.

"This isn't about you," Hanna ground out.

"Hanna," Emily whispered softly in her ear.

Hanna shivered and she could tell that Kate had taken note of it.

She took one more look over Kate's shoulder.

"Tell our dad that I want a puppy," Hanna said simply, "A boy this time. I don't want it to think it's replacing anyone."

* * *

As Hanna walked into the room she spotted Mona's brunette friend from the other day glaring at her, her arms wrapped securely around the girl who was still staring absently at the wall. Hanna smiled uncertainly back at the brunette. She turned away.

"Han," Mona's voice seemed to echo across the room.

Hanna walked quickly over to where Mona was once again holding court. A girl who had no doubt been a goth until very recently scurried off as Hanna got closer. Hanna tried to ignore the feeling that Mona was in charge of this particular asylum.

"Hi, Mona," Hanna said.

"Hi," Mona smiled, her eyes settling on where Hanna's neckline was dipping a little bit lower than it had been recently, and without a breath continued "How are you doing? How is everyone? How's Shaggy?"

The weird brunette girl was still glaring at Hanna from where she was wrapped up with the vegetable on the couch. Her mouth was twisting around in some expression...some  _ familiar _  expression.

"Was it Sean?" Hanna asked in realization, ignoring Mona's one real question, "Is that what all of it was about? Was I cheating on you with Sean?"

"Han...," Mona trailed off.

"No, really," Hanna continued on, "Was that it? Because  _ you _  kept pushing me."

"You mustn't give your heart to a broken thing. The more you do, the stronger they get, until they're strong enough to run into the woods or fly into a tree. And then to a higher tree and then to the sky," Mona intoned.

"Oh! I know that one," Hanna said in excitement, "Breakfast at Tiffany's. I think you changed it a little bit though. And also I didn't run from you until you attacked me."

"I wasn't talking about you and me, honey," Mona said with a small smile.

From across the room Hanna heard the brunette girl let out a breath.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Bonus points this chapter go to the person who can identify the pun that I found painful to look at, but for which I couldn't think of an alternative. It's in this chapter.


	7. Aurora and the Dormouse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Pretty Little Liars. I'm not making money off of writing this.
> 
> On with the show.  
> Enjoy.

Other children zipped across the field, laughing and squealing, with enormous smiles on their faces. One slightly older boy, maybe eleven or twelve years old, with wide shoulders, dark hair that stuck up straight from his rectangular head, and eyes that seemed to glare into the soul of the universe, stood at the edge of the clearing, his back pressed against the trunk of a thick tree, shadows playing across his face, as he watched the action on the field.

Emily gazed across the field too. She wasn't watching though. She was searching. She had been searching since her friend's hand had slipped from her own and vanished into thin air.

Alison was gone.

This wasn't the first time that Alison had disappeared. Since she had met Alison and Spencer, Alison had disappeared dozens of times. It didn't matter who else was around, Alison was always going to disappear. Alison didn't play by the rules. Alison didn't stay where she was supposed to. Alison wasn't just another girl in a sea of girls. Alison was a force of nature. A wood nymph or, on the occasions when their families would take them to the lake, a sea nymph.

Alison was freedom. And, like freedom, she was fleeting and enticing and just ever so slightly outside of Emily's reach. Always.

So, today, again, Alison was gone.

As always, Emily followed the fading trail of her ghost. She wandered across the field and into the shade of the woods surrounding the park, her eyes drifting across the path looking for any hint of her friend.

“Do you know that you glow?” came a soft cry from above as she passed near the tallest tree in the park.

Emily looked up into the canopy above and she spotted a different little blonde girl. Her short blonde curls framing a chubby pink face which itself framed enormous blue eyes that Emily could see even from her position on the ground. The little girl sat balanced at the root of one of the higher branches, holding a muffin to her mouth like a chipmunk with an acorn, her tiny mouth nibbling away at the top.

“What did you say?” Emily called out as an embarrassed smile spread across her cheeks.

“You glow,” the girl said with a little bit of awe in her voice, “Not like Tinkerbell. You glow all over.”

“I–,” Emily began to reply.

“How do you do that?” the girl asked, leaning forward, as though if she was just a little bit closer to Emily she could see how she had managed to do something so magical, and almost falling off of her branch.

“You should come down,” Emily called up, “Your mom and dad won't like that you're up there.”

“My daddy will come and get me when he's worried,” the girl called down, “He always comes when I'm stuck in a tree.”

“Maybe–,” Emily began again.

“Always!” the girl continued forcefully.

Both girls waited in awkward silence for a couple of minutes. Emily could see the girl looking out across the skyline in the direction of the main clearing and she found herself scanning the treeline, once again looking for any sign of her friend.

“Are you looking for your friend?” the girl asked, “The one you came with?”

“Yes,” Emily replied, “Did you see us?”

“I can see forever,” the girl said, “I can see my daddy and that woman and I can see your friend.”

“Where?” Emily asked excitedly.

“She's by the seesaw now,” the girl said, “She was closer to us earlier. The boy wouldn't let her kiss him, so she pushed him and kissed him anyway.”

“Oh,” Emily didn't know why she felt disappointed, but she slumped down against a tree that was opposite the one that the girl was sitting in.

“What's your name?” the girl asked after they had both been silent for a couple of minutes.

“Emily,” Emily answered with a small smile, “What's your name?”

***

Emily's eyes fluttered open as she felt something brushing softly against her cheek. The remnants of moonlight filtered through silvery strands of something that had wrapped itself around her face in the night. The feeling ghosted across Emily's cheek again and she tried to brush whatever it was away, but found that her right arm was wrapped around something warm and heavy and that her left arm had fallen asleep in the night.

“Stay right here,” came Hanna's barely coherent mumble, “You promised.”

“Promised what?” Emily asked softly.

She didn't expect an answer and she didn't get one. Hanna rolled just enough that Emily's arm was loose. Emily adjusted her arm, but left it wrapped lightly around Hanna as the blonde's hair fell out of their faces. Emily watched as Hanna's lips quirked up just the slightest bit and her arms pulled Emily in closer.

“Emily,” Hanna murmured and for a second Emily thought the girl was answering her.

Emily felt a warmth in her chest and she couldn't help but smile at her bed-mate. She squeezed Hanna closer and let herself fall back to sleep.

***

The streets of Rosewood were nearly empty as Emily plugged her iPod's earphones into her ears and took off running down the block. When she had stepped out of the door it had been to the sound of Hanna sleepily grumbling as she staggered down the stairs and, as much as she wanted this run, she knew that sooner rather than later she would have to get back and make sure that Hanna prepped to go out in time to begin her day.

Two laps max she thought. And maybe just around the one block this time. Stick close to home...to Hanna's home. As the beat continued in her ears, her eyes darted over her shoulder in the direction of her mother's house. She still hadn't been back to that house. She was beginning to wonder if the ghosts that lived there were really the only reason.

She was about to turn her gaze back to her route around the block when she spotted a familiar tall floppy haired figure keeping his head down as he walked in her direction. She stopped, smiled, and waved.

“Toby,” she called.

Toby's head came up at the sound of his name and he nodded at Emily before quickening his pace towards her. When he finally reached her he stopped and nodded at her again.

“Emily,” he said softly, “I was just coming to see you.”

Emily smiled softly and motioned for him to continue.

“I would have told Spencer, but I'm pretty sure she would –,”

“What have you found out that is going to drive Spencer off the deep end,” Emily could see the panic in Toby's eyes, but it was better that he get whatever it was out sooner rather than later.

“I'm pretty sure Jenna has her vision back,” he said nervously, “I'm pretty sure she's had it back for a while.”

Spencer was going to go nuclear (as usual).

Aria was going to hide in a closet (like always).

Hanna would probably take Jenna's stick to her head until she was blind again (Emily probably shouldn't smile at the thought).

“Oh.” Emily replied softly.

***

The door creaked a little bit as Emily opened it and she found herself making a mental note. She closed it softly behind herself and it whined a little bit. Emily sighed and locked the door before turning towards the kitchen.

She was only halfway down the hallway when she spotted Hanna fast asleep with her head resting on something on the kitchen counter. Emily was pretty sure that it was one of _her_ sweatshirts. Mrs. Marin...Ashley was just sat on another one of the kitchen chairs, watching Hanna sleep with a look halfway between worry and adoration swirling around on her face.

Emily sighed at the sight and without even a pause she walked over to Hanna and poked her in the side. Hanna slumped sideways, but remained firmly asleep.

“Hanna,” she said while poking her again.

“No,” she grumbled and squeezed tighter on the sweatshirt (which was definitely Emily's).

“Has she been sleeping?” Ashley asked softly from her seat.

Emily paused and looked closely at Hanna's face.

“You know she's never going to get to sleep _tonight_ ,” Emily said in defeat.

She could wait to tell Hanna about Jenna.

Hanna would probably keep pushing chairs in front of Jenna until she found proof that the girl wasn't blind.

Emily could definitely wait to tell Hanna about Jenna.

***

When the doorbell rang an hour later Hanna just grunted and squeezed the sweatshirt a little tighter. Emily sighed. She was pretty sure that the sweatshirt was going to belong to Hanna now. It was a nice sweatshirt too.

The doorbell rang again.

After making sure that Emily was going to be alright taking care of the sleeping Hanna, Ashley had left to check on something at work. Emily glanced over to the door and then back at Hanna.

Grunt. Squeeze.

Emily carefully got up and walked down the hall to the door. It squeaked when she opened it and whined a little bit as she pushed it the rest of the way open when she saw Paige standing there.

“Hi,” she said with a little smile.

“Hi,” Paige responded as her eyes shifted slightly over Emily's shoulder.

Before Emily could turn to see what Paige was looking at she felt a familiar warmth at her back and realized that she had started smiling.

“Hello, Paige,” Hanna said sleepily.

Even without turning her head, Emily knew that Hanna was glaring at the girl on their porch. She knew that Hanna was mentally moving all of the water in the house away from the door. She had a moments urge to turn around and tell Hanna about Jenna just so that the girl would redirect her anger for even a moment.

'Jenna can wait,' the Hanna in Emily's head said with a shrug 'She never tried to drown you.'

“Hi, Hanna,” Paige responded.

After a moment of awkward silence Emily felt an arm snake around her waist and a head settle on her shoulder and only a second later she felt Hanna's entire body settle against her side. She only had to shift her eyes just a little bit to see that Hanna had fallen asleep almost completely standing up.

Emily silently turned her sights back onto Paige.

“Well...this is awkward,” Paige said more to herself than anything.

The door sighed as Paige left and Emily closed it behind her.

Hanna just grunted and squeezed tighter.

***

Spencer had invited Emily, Hanna and Aria for a sleepover. 'It will be like old times' she had said. Emily couldn't help but wonder which old times Spencer was talking about. The recent old times when they would sleep over whenever Spencer felt particularly threatened by 'A' and the N.A.T. Club that night, the older old times when Ali would be there pointing out their shortcomings and holding their secrets over their heads, or the very beginning when it had been just her, Spencer, and Ali and they had still been young enough that she and Spencer were playing with dolls instead of talking about real relationships or real problems and Ali had snuck off to who knew where until the morning light.

This was exactly like none of those old times.

Hanna fell asleep against the door as she and Emily were waiting for Spencer to answer it and when she fell through when it opened she only woke up long enough to halfheartedly glare at Spencer for a second before curling up on the floor and squeezing Emily's foot under her cheek like a pillow. Aria had smiled, Spencer hand frowned, and Emily had bent down and run her hand through Hanna's hair before helping her walk over to the couch.

Hanna had whined as Emily pulled away and left her there, but she hadn't stirred any further than that. When she began to make her way up the stairs to Spencer's room, Emily began to wish that she had. She froze halfway up the staircase and heard a husky laugh that she remembered so well. She pushed onwards, but stuck at the door to Spencer's room. Maya's voice drifted through the air and Emily couldn't breathe.

She turned around and without a word walked back down the stairs and as she reached the bottom she heard Hanna snort and murmur. She chuckled a little, looking across the room and remembering the confusion she had felt as Hanna had grinned up at her and begun to unbutton her shirt.

***

Emily's eyes were just starting to flutter closed, her hand still wrapped in locks of Hanna's hair as she leaned back against the bottom of the couch where Hanna had fallen asleep, when she heard one of the steps leading upstairs creak loudly. The brief moment of fear that passed immediately following this, flooded her body with adrenaline, popping her eyes wide open and causing her to abruptly turn bodily towards the sound and pull her hand out from under Hanna's head.

Her heart began to slow down when she saw that it was only Spencer creeping down the stairs in the dark, but any hope of drifting off to sleep was now stripped from her as the remaining adrenaline made itself at home in her blood stream.

“Spencer?!” she whisper-shouted.

Spencer's head turned briefly in her direction in response, but her brow merely furrowed for a moment and then she continued her walk towards the kitchen island. Her knees were bent and her arms were off to the side a little bit and it looked like she might have been tiptoeing and the thought occurred to Emily that Spencer was trying stay quiet and she was trying to stay low.

“Spencer? What's wrong?” Emily called out again.

When Emily saw motion out of the corner of her eye, she turned and realized that the noise or maybe the earlier jostling when she had moved, had woken Hanna, who was now staring up at Emily from the couch, her bright blue eyes shining with questions and her hand reaching out for Emily's.

Emily nodded her head in the direction that Spencer had been moving and then they both turned to see that Spencer was feeling frantically around on the island, while never looking away from the side door of the house. They heard a whimper and then watched as Spencer crouched underneath the island and pressed her back against it's base and continued to blindly feel around the top of the island, searching for something.

“Spencer?!” Hanna whisper-shouted.

Spencer didn't even respond to the sound this time. She simply continued to feel around on top of the counter. Finally she seemed to find what she was looking for. Her hand curled around the handle of one of the knives sheathed in the knife rack.

“Spencer?” Emily called tentatively.

“I don't think she's awake,” Hanna whispered, her tone softening.

Spencer pulled the knife slowly out of the rack and then shifted back down onto the floor under the counter, drawing her legs closer to her chest and holding the knife tightly against her shins. Her eyes were wide, but she didn't seem to be seeing anything in the room.

“That's not safe!” Emily whisper-shouted in Spencer's direction.

“What's she going to do?” Hanna snorted, “Kill us all in _her_ sleep?”

“She could hurt herself, Hanna!” Emily scolded, causing Hanna to sigh.

“Fine,” she said standing up.

“What are you doing?” Emily asked in panic.

Hanna didn't turn back to Emily, she just kept tentatively walking towards Spencer, holding her hand out in front of herself cautiously. When she was just a foot away Spencer seemed to notice her moving for the first time and her blank eyes settled in her direction.

“Give me the knife, Spence,” Hanna said calmly, “The knife is not your friend.”

Spencer slashed out with the knife and Hanna just barely stepped out of the way in time. She stepped quickly away from the sleeping girl and went back over to Emily. After a moment Spencer cradled the knife in front of her again.

“She can keep the knife,” Hanna whispered to Emily, “I'm not going back over there.”

Emily nodded, her eyes quickly scanning over Hanna for any injuries.

“I think she _is_ going to kill us all in her sleep,” Hanna commented.

“I think we should keep an eye on her,” Emily said with worry.

“Duh!” Hanna snorted, “I'm certainly not going to be able to sleep again.”

“Do you think she does this a lot?” Emily asked softly.

“I prefer you,” Hanna said quietly, “You just think you're a cat.”

***

“We need to talk,” Spencer said once all of the girls were gathered around her living room.

Aria had stumbled down the stairs an hour before, asking why no one had woken her up, and had been met with uncomfortable looks from Hanna and Emily, who in turn were graced with an exasperated glare from Spencer. Emily was still exhausted from her less than half completed night of sleep and couldn't really snap to attention all that quickly, but to her surprise Hanna was already on fine form.

“Is this about how you woke up, under the counter, clutching a machete to your chest this morning?” Hanna asked, “Because that's kinda worrying me.”

“What?” Aria shot a worried look at Spencer.

“We're not talking about that,” Spencer cut in quickly.

“I kinda want to talk about that,” Aria shot back worriedly, “What is she talking about?”

“It's nothing,” Spencer dismissed the subject with a quick wave of her hand, “I'm more worried about Hanna and Emily's recently overly co-dependent and reclusive relationship.”

“What?” Hanna asked with a dumbfounded look on her face.

“What!?” Emily shouted in some mix of shock and exasperation.

“Emily, you haven't been out of that house for more than a couple of minutes since the Masquerade Ball and even then you have Hanna super glued to your side. You eat together, you sleep together, you finish each others sentences,” Spencer's voice was becoming more exasperated with each word that she let out.

“We've always been close, Spencer,” Emily said softly.

“Not that close,” Spencer said, “I think you might using her to fill the space that Maya used to fill and I don't think it's healthy that it's been going on for this long.”

“That's ridiculous,” Emily said, “Aria, tell her that this is ridiculous.”

Aria shifted on one foot uncomfortably and bit at her lip.

“Aria?” Emily pushed.

“Honestly, I think Hanna might be doing it a little bit too,” Aria's face filled with guilt as she spoke, “To try to maybe find a substitute for Mona.”

“Oh my GOD!” Hanna shouted, “I'm tired of this. Spencer came at me with broadsword last night, you've been stalking me for months, and THIS is what we're focusing on? And really why does _everyone_ keep assuming that I was _in love_ with Mona?”

Everyone froze. Aria with an apology halfway out of her mouth, Spencer with a look in her eyes that said that she had been trying to figure out how to get this back on  _her_ topic of choice, and Emily closely watching Hanna's expression which seemed to be the only thing in the room that dared to move.

Hanna's eyes widened.

“Hanna?” Emily finally said in her softest voice.

Hanna was out of the house before the word was finished the door slamming behind her.

***

Hanna was in the first place that Emily thought to look for her, so she was surprised to find Hanna already settled in when she got there. It was a little patch of grass behind Spencer's barn. It seemed like it was the only spot that had been missed by the lawnmower and it was really kind of nice.

Hanna lay in the grass with her eyes closed and her arms crossed tightly across her chest. Emily quietly set herself down on the ground next to Hanna and watched her for a few moments. Hanna's forehead was scrunched up and her lips were drawn in a flat line and every few moments she saw Hanna wiggle and her face would scrunch up even more (Emily couldn't help but find it cute), but through all of this Hanna's eyes stayed stubbornly closed.

Emily reached out and tentatively took one of Hanna's hands from off her chest and gently began to rub circles into the back of her palm. Hanna's eyes slowly drifted open and she slowly turned to look at Emily.

“I didn't mean to say that,” Hanna said softly.

“I know,” Emily replied.

“I just heard Aria talking and...I didn't mean to say that,” Hanna insisted.

“Out loud,” Emily agreed.

“I broke up with Caleb,” Hanna said, “Or Caleb broke up with me.”

“What?” Emily asked, “How long?”

“Since the first day of school? Since Mona died? Since the beginning? I don't know,” Hanna said, “I love him. I do. He's just not...we're not a couple. I don't even know. It was coming for awhile. Obviously there was...he knew that there was someone else, but he was too nice to say,”

“Are you afraid...do you think that...what people will say if they know who it is?” Emily asked.

“If someone gives me a hard time about liking a girl I'll pull their head out of their ass just so I can shove it back in so far that they can see their own tonsils. If someone gives me a hard time about a guy I'd do the same thing,” Hanna paused and looked at Emily, “You know that's not my problem.”

“Then...,”

“You know how in Alice in Wonderland she's been shrunk down and fallen into a bottle and is probably going to drown, but she just keeps wishing she hadn't cried so much?”

“That's because all of that water was made up of her tears, Hanna,” Emily laughed.

“Oh, that actually makes a lot more sense,” Hanna paused to think, “I've never been in love with Mona.”

“Oh,” Emily said.

“And I'm afraid that I'm going to drown wishing I didn't have so many regrets.”

It was as Emily was wrapping her arms around Hanna that both of their phones started to beep.

  
  


__**Ladies. You have eaten well.  
  
You've eaten Rosewood's wealth. It's spirit. Your respite is nearly over.  
  
From this moment on-- none of you are safe.**

_**Condolences,** _

_**-A** _

  
  


“Is it a sign that I'm spending too much time with Lucas and Caleb that I know that's from Batman?” Hanna asked quietly as she looked down at the message.

Emily looked over at Hanna and Hanna leaned in.

***

Alison is gone. Alison is gone forever and it's as this thought flitted through her head that Emily started to regret the fact that she was waiting for Mona Vanderwall to file into the empty common room. She could see a nurse or orderly standing outside of one of the doors, watching to make sure that no one got into this room who wasn't supposed to, the white and pink stripes of their uniform being the only thing showing through the safety-glass window in the door.

Maya is gone. She's slightly ashamed now that this is the thought that comes second. She feels like the wound should be fresher, more painful, but Alison had been... She had loved Maya, she really had. Alison just came first.

The door opened and Emily didn't know what to expect.

A nurse filed in first. Emily had seen her before, she had let her in the door and led her down the hallway to this room as cries filled the air. Not cries of fear or pain as she had expected, not really. More of them were cries of anger and frustration. The asylum wanted to be released. Released onto the streets of Rosewood. Released so that the clean and pristine streets of the town would seethe with the darkness that lay at its heart.

Mona walked in, saw Emily and smiled. It was a knowing smile. Emily knew it was a knowing smile. Alison had given them that smile so many times, but in the end it had shined through as fake. Alison didn't know anything, but she knew that she didn't know. Mona walked in and saw Emily and she knew everything that there was to know.

“Emily,” she said, “Hi.”

“Could you not smile at me, please?” Emily said quietly.

Mona quietly pulled her face into a flat expression and averted her gaze from Emily's eyes. Emily was grateful that she hadn't had to ask for that. This was all hard enough as it was.

“You came to ask me,” Mona spoke more to the table than to Emily, but the words came across.

“I came to ask you if you killed Maya,” Emily said, “But I'm not sure why I should believe you.”

“I couldn't kill anybody,” Mona said quietly, “I almost killed...Hanna almost died and I couldn't even think straight.”

“You killed Ian,” Emily pointed out, her mind flashing back to that boy standing off to the side of the park, watching everyone. She worried that the N.A.T. Club had started so much earlier than anyone had imagined.

“You know _I_ didn't,” Mona growled, “Ian wasn't _my_ plaything.”

Emily was starting to see puppet strings hanging above everybody's heads. Her mind flashed through every moment in her life and she felt herself searching every moment for the telltale signs of the hand of the puppet-master. It surprised her more than she would have liked that she actually believed that Mona's wasn't the hand in question.

“Then whose was he?” Emily asked.

“Don't ask questions you already know the answer to, Emily.”

***

End of Volume 1.

Volume 2 begins in the next chapter.

***

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: There is a scene in this chapter that I liked so much when I first conceived of it, but I couldn't really get it to come out the way that I envisioned it. I don't hate it, but it's nagging at me. And something else came out in the writing that is going to shift my view of the story going forward a little bit... I promise nothing.
> 
> Here are the extra-credit questions, just in case anyone is still reading this:  
> 1\. What was the pun in the previous chapter that I just couldn't figure out how to get rid of?  
> 2\. To which literary work is Hanna's fake ID in the previous chapter a reference and which two other characters in the series is it also referencing?  
> 3\. What was the first thought that popped into my mind when I wrote out that Spencer was crouched under her kitchen counter with a knife? (Hint: It was in fact a reference to the show.)

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Way more came out of the last scene than I originally intended, but I just started typing and got on a roll. I've never really been interested in what exactly Emily saw differently than the others about Alison, but now that I think about it there must have been some glimmer that she thought she saw.  
> I'm not sure how happy I am with this 'first' chapter, but then I never am. There will continue to be the dealing with grief storyline in the other chapters, but I think I might also branch into something that resembles one of the Pretty Little Liars mystery storylines. Enjoy.


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